Recognition October 2021


KPWHRI welcomes Brian Williamson, PhD

Biostatistician Brian Williamson, PhD, has joined Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute as an assistant investigator. Dr. Williamson's areas of expertise — including statistical methods for vaccine efficacy trials, biomarker discovery and validation, and machine learning — are combined with passions for communicating biostatistics and for community outreach. Dr. Williamson is currently working on KPWHRI projects in mental health, pragmatic clinical trials, and drug and vaccine safety and effectiveness. Welcome, Dr. Williamson!

KPWHRI recognized with biomedical research award

KPWHRI was recognized at the annual gala event of the Northwest Association for Biomedical Research (NWABR) in September. NWABR presented its annual Alvin J. Thompson Award to the Northwest biomedical research community in recognition of contributions to ending the coronavirus pandemic. Accepting the honor for KPWHRI were Tanya Matthews, administrator of the Kaiser Permanente Washington Institutional Review Board; Brittany Morgan, senior workforce process analyst; Emily Westbrook, director of research project management; De Vona Lang, administrative specialist; and Jeff Pearson, facilities specialist.

Drs. Shortreed and Simon present to NIH Collaboratory

In September, KPWHRI Senior Investigators Susan Shortreed, PhD, and Greg Simon, MD, MPH, spoke at Grand Rounds for the National Institutes of Health Collaboratory Living Textbook of Pragmatic Clinical Trials. The virtual seminar by Drs. Shortreed and Simon was on "Population-based outreach to prevent suicidal behavior: A pragmatic randomized trial."

Dr. Penfold speaks at HCSRN forum

Rob Penfold, PhD, KPWHRI senior investigator, spoke at the Health Care Systems Research Network Scientific Data Resources Forum in September. Dr. Penfold was a member of a panel on the technical, ethical, and privacy issues associated with gathering information about social determinants on a large scale from public records and financial data. Other panelists were Claudia Nau from Kaiser Permanente Southern California and Bobbi Jo Yarborough from Kaiser Permanente Northwest.

Dr. Green presents at American Heart Association meeting

In September, Bev Green, MD, MPH, KPWHRI senior investigator, presented results from a study on how patients with hypertension prefer to monitor their blood pressure: with clinic visits, home monitoring, or a blood pressure kiosk in a pharmacy or clinic lobby. Dr. Green presented at the American Heart Association 2021 Hypertension Scientific Sessions. KPWHRI collaborators on the work are Project Manager Kelly Ehrlich, MS; Biostatistician Melissa Anderson, MS; and Senior Investigator Jennifer McClure, PhD.

Dr. Miglioretti invited to speak at NCI

Diana Miglioretti, PhD, a KPWHRI affiliate investigator, was invited to speak at the National Cancer Institute Division of Cancer Epidemiology & Genetics Biostatistics Branch. Dr. Miglioretti's virtual talk was titled “Estimating the Cumulative Risk of Screening Mammography Outcomes.”