Sascha Dublin, MD, PhD

Sascha Dublin

“My work helps people know what medications are safe, especially for vulnerable populations like pregnant women and older adults.”

Sascha Dublin, MD, PhD

Senior Investigator, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute
Physician, Washington Permanente Medical Group, Internal Medicine
Affiliate Associate Professor, Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine

Sascha.Dublin@kp.org
206-287-2870

Biography

Sascha Dublin, MD, PhD, is a general internist and epidemiologist who studies the health effects of prescription medications and other interventions using real-world health care data. Through her work, she aims to provide better information about the risks and benefits of different treatments so patients and doctors can make well-informed decisions.

Much of Dr. Dublin’s research focuses on the outcomes of medication use or other interventions during pregnancy. These studies take advantage of the rich clinical data available through electronic health records (EHRs). Some of her current work in this area includes:

  • comparing different treatments for hypertension in pregnancy, looking at both the safety and effectiveness of various medications;
  • working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to study whether prescription opioid use in pregnancy increases the risk of birth defects; and
  • studying the impact of treating mild to moderate hypertension during pregnancy through an R01 grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Dr. Dublin recently led an impactful study with Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute colleagues exploring different methods to screen for diabetes in pregnancy. This work examined how outcomes changed for mothers and babies after Kaiser Permanente Washington made a big shift in their approach to gestational diabetes screening. This project found that a new, more intensive approach to screening did not improve health outcomes, and may have even worsened some. As a result, Kaiser Permanente Washington changed back to the previous, more widely used screening approach.

Beyond pregnancy, Dr. Dublin’s work includes studies of medication use and dementia risk in older adults. For example, her team found that heavy use of some commonly used medications including antihistamines increases dementia risk.  They also found that one widely used medication class, proton pump inhibitors, does not increase the risk of dementia—in contrast to some earlier reports—or fractures. 

Dr. Dublin has a strong interest in epidemiologic methods, particularly finding ways to better measure important variables. She has led methods workgroups for the FDA’s Sentinel Initiative and has experience using natural language processing and collecting data from patients through mobile phone apps. Dr. Dublin also has interest and expertise in improving the rigor and validity of observational studies by improving how they account for patients’ other illnesses and overall health status.

Dr. Dublin previously held a Paul B. Beeson Career Development Award (K23) from the National Institute on Aging. She sees patients one day a week in primary care at Kaiser Permanente Washington.

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Research interests and experience 

  • Aging & Geriatrics

    Medications and risk of cognitive decline; use of preventive medications; age-related disease and disability
  • Cardiovascular Health

    Epidemiology
  • Medication Use & Patient Safety

    Medication safety in vulnerable populations including older adults and pregnant women
  • Women’s Health

    Safety and effectiveness of interventions during pregnancy; medication use and safety during pregnancy
  • Child & Adolescent Health

    Impact of in utero medication exposure on the fetus or infant

Vaccines & Infectious Diseases

 

Recent publications

Harding BN, Floyd JS, Scherrer JF, Salas J, Morley JE, Farr SA, Dublin S. Methods to identify dementia in the electronic health record: comparing cognitive test scores with dementia algorithms.  Healthc (Amst). 2020;8(2):100430. doi: 10.1016/j.hjdsi.2020.100430. Epub 2020 May 22.  PubMed

Salas J, Morley JE, Scherrer JF, Floyd JS, Farr SA, Zubatsky M, Barthold D, Dublin S. Risk of incident dementia following metformin initiation compared with noninitiation or delay of antidiabetic medication therapy. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf. 2020 May 3. doi: 10.1002/pds.5014. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed

Chen L, Shortreed SM, Easterling T, Cheetham TC, Reynolds K, Avalos LA, Kamineni A, Holt V, Neugebauer R, Akosile M, Nance N, Bider-Canfield Z, Walker RL, Badon SE, Dublin S. Identifying hypertension in pregnancy using electronic medical records: the importance of blood pressure values.  Pregnancy Hypertens. 2020 Jan;19:112-118. doi: 10.1016/j.preghy.2020.01.001. Epub 2020 Jan 3. PubMed

Dublin S, Abramovitz R, Layne CM, Katz L. Building a trauma-informed national mental health workforce: learning outcomes from use of the core curriculum on childhood trauma in multidisciplinary practice settings. Psychol Trauma. 2019 Dec 19. pii: 2019-78453-001. doi: 10.1037/tra0000540. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed

 

Research

Multiracial women enjoying working out together outside

Personalized coaching shows promise for delaying memory loss

Trial is the first to test an individualized approach to improve dementia risk factors.

Research

Female doctor and senior female patient sitting around desk

Dementia risk screening tool shows promise

In a new study, a tool to help discover undiagnosed dementia performed well in 2 separate health systems.

Research

Hypertension-in-pregnancy_1col.jpg

New findings on treating hypertension in pregnancy

A study led by Dr. Sascha Dublin finds similar outcomes for 3 hypertension medications, filling an evidence gap.

Prescription overload

Senior adult sitting with glass of water in one hand and  holding medication in other hand

Deprescribing: Less may be more

Dr. Sascha Dublin explains why sometimes not taking medications may be a safer and healthier choice.