Jessica Chubak, PhD
“My research focuses on improving cancer control by finding effective ways to get screened for cancer and to navigate treatment and survivorship.”
Jessica Chubak, PhD
Senior Investigator, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute
Jessica.Chubak@kp.org
206-287-2556
Animal-assisted interactions research on Facebook
Biography
Jessica Chubak, PhD, is an epidemiologist who works to improve cancer diagnosis, treatment, control, and survivorship. She contributes to several national collaborations that are finding practical, efficient, effective ways to screen for cancer, especially colorectal cancer. She also studies how common medications affect cancer risk and recurrence. Intrigued by how pets positively affect health, Dr. Chubak is studying animal-assisted activities in clinics and hospitals where children get treated for cancer. Dr. Chubak’s methodological research focuses on the use of administrative and electronic health record data in epidemiologic and health services studies.
Dr. Chubak joined KPWHRI in 2007, bringing expertise in epidemiologic methods, pharmacoepidemiology, and cancer. Awarded a Fulbright graduate student grant, Dr. Chubak pursued her master's degree in bioethics and health law in New Zealand before completing her PhD in Epidemiology at the University of Washington (UW). Dr. Chubak is an affiliate associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the UW School of Public Health, where she enjoys guest-lecturing and getting to work with students.
Research interests and experience
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Cancer
Epidemiology; colorectal cancer; medication use; survivorship; recurrence; secondary prevention; quality of life; automated data collection; screening; animal-assisted activities; survivorship
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Health Services & Economics
Screening
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Medication Use & Patient Safety
Cancer risk and use of common medications
Recent publications
McCarthy AM, Tiro JA, Hu E, Ehsan S, Chubak J, Kamineni A, Feldman S, Atlas SJ, Silver MI, Kobrin S, Haas JS. Factors associated with shorter-interval cervical cancer screening for young women in three United States healthcare systems. Prev Med Rep. 2023 Jun 11;35:102279. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2023.102279. eCollection 2023 Oct. PubMed
Corley DA, Jensen CD, Chubak J, Schottinger JE, Halm EA, Udaltsova N, Prospr Precise Consortium. Evaluating different approaches for calculating adenoma detection rate: Is screening colonoscopy the gold standard? Gastroenterology. 2023 Sep;165(3):784-787.e4. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2023.05.025. Epub 2023 May 30. PubMed
Nichols H, Wernli KJ, Chawla N, O’Meara ES, Figueroa Gray M, Green LE, Baggett CD, Casperson M, Chao C, Jones SM, Kirchhoff AC, Kuo T, Lee C , Malogolowkin M, Quesenberry CP, Ruddy KJ, Wun T, Zebrack B, Chubak J, Hahn EE, Keegan TH, Kushi LH. Challenges and opportunities of epidemiological studies to reduce the burden of cancers in young adults. Curr Epidemiol Rep. 2023 Sep;10(3):115-124. doi: 10.1007/s40471-022-00286-9. Epub 2022 Mar 29. PubMed
Selby K, Sedki M, Levine E, Kamineni A, Green BB, Vachani A, Haas JS, Ritzwoller DP, Croswell JM, Ohikere K, Doria-Rose VP, Rendle KA, Chubak J, Lafata JE, Inadomi J, Corley DA. Test performance metrics for breast, cervical, colon and lung cancer screening: a systematic review. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2023 Feb 8:djad028. doi: 10.1093/jnci/djad028. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Del Vecchio NJ, Beaber EF, Garcia MP, Wheeler CM, Kamineni A, Chao C, Chubak J, Corley DA, Owens CL, Winer RL, Pruitt SL, Raine-Bennett T, Feldman S, Silverberg M. Provider- and facility-level variation in pre-cancerous cervical biopsy diagnoses. J Low Genit Tract Dis. 2023 Apr 1;27(2):113-119. doi: 10.1097/LGT.0000000000000721. Epub 2023 Jan 17. PubMed
Feldman S, Lykken JM, Haas JS, Werner CL, Kobrin SC, Tiro JA, Chubak J, Kamineni A. Factors associated with timely colposcopy following an abnormal cervical cancer test result. Prev Med. 2022 Oct 18;164:107307. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2022.107307. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Chubak J, Pocobelli G, Ziebell RA, Hawkes RJ, Adler A, Bobb JF, Zerr DM. Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on animal-assisted activities in pediatric hospitals. J Pediatr Health Care. 2023 Mar-Apr;37(2):173-178. doi: 10.1016/j.pedhc.2022.09.011. Epub 2022 Sep 30. PubMed
Research
Improving cancer prevention and early detection
How KPWHRI is contributing to better cancer screening and better outcomes for patients.
Research
How did the pandemic impact hospital visits with animals?
Top pediatric oncology hospitals reported lasting changes to programs involving visits with animals.
Healthy findings blog
Improving reporting of cancer screening harms
Aruna Kamineni, PhD, MPH, discusses her recent study on how guidelines report screening risks.
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