Recognition May 2015

• Grossman gives APA keynote
• Larson talks big data
• DAWN study wins Pitkin award
• Survey manager joins GHRI

Pediatrics QI conference features keynote by Dr. Grossman and sessions by Drs. Hsu and Penfold

On April 24, three GHRI scientists took the stage in San Diego at the 5^th Annual Advancing Quality Improvement Science for Children’s Healthcare Research Conference. Sponsored by the Academic Pediatrics Association, the conference focuses on important methodological and technical issues in pediatric health care quality improvement (QI) research.

• GHRI Senior Investigator David Grossman, MD, MPH, also a Group Health medical director and pediatrician, opened the conference with the keynote address, “Making the Case for QI Research.” Dr. Grossman also moderated a session on the conference’s best abstracts.
• Assistant Investigator Clarissa Hsu, PhD, gave an introduction to qualitative methods in a breakout session that explored how qualitative data collection and analysis can enhance QI research.
• Associate Investigator Robert Penfold, PhD, presented a breakout session on interrupted time series analysis , which can be used to measure effects on population health associated with newly implemented programs or changes in policy.

View a PDF of the conference program.

Dr. Larson shares insights on big data at health care journalists conference

Group Health Vice President for Research and GHRI Executive Director Eric B. Larson, MD, MPH, was part of an expert panel on big data at Health Journalism 2015—the Association of Health Care Journalists annual conference, held April 23-26 in Santa Clara, Calif. Dr. Larson joined panelists from academic, clinical, and laboratory settings to discuss “how big data might revolutionize medical research and treatment.” The goal? To help reporters understand how using big data affects health care and health research and to highlight issues that need to be considered when covering the subject.

Read a summary of Dr. Larson’s presentation—Big Data: Past, present, and future perspectives from an integrated delivery system—in our Healthy Findings Blog.

Top OB/GYN journal honors depression study led by Drs. Reed and Katon

The editors of Obstetrics & Gynecology recently honored a study led by GHRI Affiliate Investigators Susan Reed, MD, MPH, and the late Wayne Katon, MD, who passed away in March. Their paper describing the Depression Attention for Women Now (DAWN) study—Improving Care for Depression in Obstetrics and Gynecology: A Randomized Controlled Trial—received the journal’s 2014 Roy M. Pitkin Award recognizing its most outstanding articles from the past year.

The DAWN study compared collaborative depression care adapted to obstetrics and gynecology with usual care—finding that collaborative care was feasible and worked significantly better to improve mental health. Dr. Reed’s and Dr. Katon’s co-authors include first-author Jennifer Melville, MD, MPH, and others from the University of Washington School of Medicine and Harborview Medical Center, as well as GHRI Research Associate Evette Ludman, PhD.

GHRI welcomes new Survey Research Program Manager Megan Baldwin

Megan Baldwin, MS, took the helm of GHRI’s Survey Research Program (SRP) on April 21, bringing a range of research management and survey methodology expertise to her role as SRP’s new manager. Ms. Baldwin comes to GHRI from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, where she led the statistical data management team in implementing a cluster-randomized trial on HIV therapy and prevention in South Africa and Zambia. Before that, she was a senior project manager in the Solutions Consulting Group at DATSTAT, Inc.—helping researchers conceptualize, implement, and improve the quality of their data collection.

"These are exciting times in research, with advances in technology providing new opportunities to reach and learn from consumers,” says Ms. Baldwin.  “I look forward to working with everyone at GHRI to find innovative ways to promote study participation and provide high-quality data."

Early in her career, Ms. Baldwin held a variety of management and leadership positions in the University of Washington’s Social Development Research Group. She has a master’s degree in clinical/counseling psychology from the San Jose State University.