Eric B. Larson, MD, MPH
“As the public-interest research arm of Kaiser Permanente Washington's learning health care system and a member of major research consortia, KPWHRI is honored to contribute to local and national health care improvements.”
Eric B. Larson, MD, MPH
Senior Investigator, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute
Professor of Health Services, Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine
Former Executive Director, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute
Former Vice President, Research and Health Care Innovation, Kaiser Permanente Washington
Eric.B.Larson@kp.org
206-287-2988
Eric Larson on LinkedIn
Biography
Eric B. Larson, MD, MPH, is a senior investigator at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute. He served as the institute's executive director from 2002 through 2018, as well as vice president for research and health care innovation at Kaiser Permanente Washington from 2017 to 2018.
A general internist, Dr. Larson is a national leader in geriatrics, health services, and clinical research and has been an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine since 2007. He pursues an array of research, ranging from clinical interests such as Alzheimer’s disease and genomics to health services research involving technology assessment, cost-effectiveness analysis, learning health systems, and quality improvement. His research on aging includes a longstanding collaboration between Kaiser Permanente Washington and the University of Washington (UW) called the Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) study. Among ACT’s many groundbreaking findings:
- Regular exercise is linked to reduced risk of dementia, Alzheimer's disease, and declines in how well people think.
- Use of larger amounts of common medications that have strong anticholinergic side effects is linked to higher risks for developing dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.
- Risk for dementia in old age can be linked to early life factors, such as socioeconomic status, education, and midlife vascular risk factors.
- Risk for dementia is also tied to high blood sugar levels, even without diabetes.
With colleagues from Duke and Harvard, Dr. Larson established and now helps lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Common Fund’s Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory. The Collaboratory sponsors pragmatic clinical trials and aims to improve the way clinical trials are conducted so that patients and care providers have access to the best available clinical evidence for decision-making. Dr. Larson is also the principal investigator for the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE) project at KPWHRI and the UW. The goal of eMERGE research is to better understand the genomic basis of disease to tailor medical care to individual patients based on their genomic differences.
Dr. Larson has written or co-authored more than a dozen books, including 2017’s Enlightened Aging: Building Resilience for Long, Active Life, which draws from his decades of work as a physician and the leader of the ACT study. He has also published more than 500 peer-reviewed scientific papers.
Until 2019, Dr. Larson maintained a small but longstanding internal medicine practice. He served as medical director for the UW Medical Center and associate dean for clinical affairs at its medical school from 1989 to 2002. He is a member and past president of the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM), having received their highest honor, the Robert J. Glaser Award, in 2004. Dr. Larson is also a master of the American College of Physicians (ACP) and served on its Board of Regents for nearly a decade, including one term as chair. He was a commissioner on The Joint Commission from 1999 to 2010.
Research interests and experience
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Aging & Geriatrics
Dementia, cognitive health; quality of life; quality of care; genomic advances -
Chronic Illness Management
Self-management; prevention
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Health Informatics
eHealth
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Health Services & Economics
Chronic illness; cost effectiveness analysis; performance measurement and incentives
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Medication Use & Patient Safety
Pharmacogenetics; drug safety
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Patient/Provider Interaction
Self-management; patient/provider relationships
Recent publications
Bagi Z, Kroenke CD, Fopiano KA, Tian Y, Filosa JA, Sherman LS, Larson EB, Keene CD, Degener O'Brien K, Adeniyi PA, Back SA. Association of cerebral microvascular dysfunction and white matter injury in Alzheimer's disease. Geroscience. 2022 May 25. doi: 10.1007/s11357-022-00585-5. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
O'Brien EC, Sugarman J, Weinfurt KP, Larson EB, Heagerty PJ, Hernandez AF, Curtis LH. The impact of COVID-19 on pragmatic clinical trials: lessons learned from the NIH Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory. Trials. 2022 May 21;23(1):424. doi: 10.1186/s13063-022-06385-8. PubMed
Eissman JM, Dumitrescu L, Mahoney ER, Smith AN, Mukherjee S, Lee ML, Scollard P, Choi SE, Bush WS, Engelman CD, Lu Q, Fardo DW, Trittschuh EH, Mez J, Kaczorowski CC, Hernandez Saucedo H, Widaman KF, Buckley RF, Properzi MJ, Mormino EC, Yang HS, Harrison TM, Hedden T, Nho K, Andrews SJ, Tommet D, Hadad N, Sanders RE, Ruderfer DM, Gifford KA, Zhong X, Raghavan NS, Vardarajan BN; Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI); Alzheimer’s Disease Genetics Consortium (ADGC); A4 Study Team, Pericak-Vance MA, Farrer LA, Wang LS, Cruchaga C, Schellenberg GD, Cox NJ, Haines JL, Keene CD, Saykin AJ, Larson EB, Sperling RA, Mayeux R, Cuccaro ML, Bennett DA, Schneider JA, Crane PK, Jefferson AL, Hohman TJ. Sex differences in the genetic architecture of cognitive resilience to Alzheimer's disease. Brain. 2022 May 13:awac177. doi: 10.1093/brain/awac177. Online ahead of print. PubMed
Marcum ZA, Cohen JB, Larson EB, Williamson J, Bress AP. Can preferentially prescribing angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) over angiotensinconverting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) decrease dementia risk and improve brain health equity? NAM Perspectives. May 2022; https://doi.org/10.31478/202205c.
Whitehouse P, Gandy S, Saini V, George DR, Larson EB, Alexander GC, Avorn J, Brownlee S, Camp C, Chertkow H, Fugh-Berman A, Howard R, Kesselheim A, Langa K, Perry G, Richard E, Schneider L. Making the case for accelerated withdrawal of aducanumab. J Alzheimers Dis. 2022 Apr 5. doi: 10.3233/JAD-220262. Online ahead of print. PubMed
Coe NB, White L, Oney M, Basu A, Larson EB. Public spending on acute and long-term care for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Alzheimers Dement. 2022 Mar 16. doi: 10.1002/alz.12657. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Larson EB, Nelson JC. In older adults, use of a recombinant zoster vaccine was associated with Guillain-Barré syndrome. Ann Intern Med. 2022;175(3):JC35. doi: 10.7326/J22-0010. Epub 2022 Mar 1. PubMed
Leppig KA, Rahm AK, Appelbaum P, Aufox S, Bland ST, Buchanan A, Christensen KD, Chung WK, Wright-Clayton E, Crosslin D, Denny J, DeVange S, Gordon A, Green RC, Hakonarson H, Harr MH, Henrikson NB, Hoell C, Holm IA, Kullo IJ, Jarvik GP, Lammers PE, Larson EB, Lindor NM, Marasa M, Myer MF, Perez E, Peterson JF, Pratap S, Prows CA, Ralston JD, Rasouly HM, Roden DM, Sharp RR, Singh R, Shaibi G, Smith ME, Sturm A, Thiese HA, Van Driest SL, Williams J, Williams MS, Wynn J, Zawatsky CL, Weisner GL. The reckoning: the return of genomic results to 1444 participants across the eMERGE3 Network. Genet Med. 2022 May;24(5):1130-1138. doi: 10.1016/j.gim.2022.01.015. Epub 2022 Feb 23. PubMed
Roden D, Glazer AM, Davogustto GE, Yang T, Muhammad A, Mosley JD, Larson EB, Van Driest S, Wells QS, Wada Y, Bland S, Yoneda ZT, Kroncke BM, George A, Shoemaker MB. Arrhythmia variant associations and reclassifications in the eMERGE-III sequencing study. Circulation. 2021 Dec 21. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.055562. Online ahead of print. PubMed
van Dalen JW, Brayne C, Crane PK, Fratiglioni L, Larson EB, Lobo A, Lobo E, Marcum ZA, Moll van Charante EP, qiu C, Reidel-Heller SG, Rohr S, Ryden L, Skoog I, van Gool WA, Richard E. Association of systolic blood pressure with dementia risk and the role of age, U-shaped associations, and mortality. JAMA Intern Med. 2021 Dec 13. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.7009. Online ahead of print. PubMed
ACT Study news
Healthy aging: New tool for research and collaboration
Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) Study launches a new website to advance our understanding of brain aging.
Healthy Findings Blog
Practice acceptance when change or adversity strike
At any age — but especially later in life — adapting and seeking assistance when we need it can help through tough times.
Healthy aging
Lessons about aging from COVID-19
Eric Larson, MD, MPH, shares ways to reduce social isolation and loneliness, no matter the cause.
Research
Cataract surgery linked with lessened dementia risk
JAMA Internal Medicine study finds cataract surgery associated with 30% lower risk of dementia in aging population.
KPWHRI In the Media
Dr. Eric Larson interviewed about new research based on ACT Study data
Cataract surgery may reduce the risk of dementia, study finds
Oregon Public Broadcasting, Jan. 4, 2022
ACT Study
Roundup of 3 recent studies on dementia risk
Researchers explore links between hearing loss, military service, and cognitive decline — and look at timeliness of diagnosis.
KPWHRI in the Media
Research from the ACT Study, co-led by Eric Larson, MD, MPH, links cataract surgery to a lower risk of dementia.
Cataract surgery associated with lower risk of dementia
The Seattle Times, Dec. 13, 2021
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