December 2016

Group Health Research Institute recently received word of 10 new awards.

Achieving Public Health Impact Through Research (APHIR): Multi-country Investigation of Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness in Preventing Hospitalization and Other Adverse Outcomes Associated with Influenza Among Pregnant Women

A one-year, $61,274 grant from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Major goals: To identify cohorts of pregnant women at Group Health (2010-2016), identify hospitalizations for acute respiratory illness in these cohorts, conduct medical record review of hospitalization, and estimate burden of influenza hospitalization and influenza vaccine effectiveness in pregnant women. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Michael L. Jackson.

BRCA Testing in Group Health

An eight-month, $18,821 grant from Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Major goals: To describe the uptake of genetic testing among Group Health patients. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Karen Wernli.

Collaborative Care for Chronic Pain in Primary Care

A two-year, $127,730 grant from National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Major goals: To conduct analyses of health maintenance organization (HMO) virtual database warehouse (VDW) data to further the goals of the National Pain Strategy, with linkage to a survey of adult enrollees. Goals will be to assess the prevalence and burdens of high impact chronic pain and to examine how chronic pain is managed and self-managed in the study populations. This will also be a vehicle for demonstrating the feasibility of a health plan research network for research concerning chronic pain. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Michael R. Von Korff.

Evaluation of the Risk of Neural Tube Defects Among Live Births Exposed to Maternal Prescription Opioids During Early Pregnancy

A three-year, $752,338 grant from Food and Drug Administration. Major goals: To measure the association between in utero exposure to prescription opioids during early pregnancy and primary neurulation defects. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Denise M. Boudreau.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Sentinel Operations Center Core Leader

A one-year, $39,002 grant from Food and Drug Administration. Major goals: To provide training for FDA staff, visit FDA if needed, provide leadership and support to FDA in developing future Sentinel activities, and to assist with the planning and implementation of the Sentinel strategic plan. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Jennifer C. Nelson.

Incidence and Predictors of Opioid Overdose and Death Among Extended Release/Long-Acting (ER/LA) Opioid Analgesics Users as Measured by Diagnoses and Death Records - A Retrospective Database Study - Data Analysis Coordinating Center (Study 1B - Sow #5)

A three-year, $2,012,973 grant from Campbell Alliance, Ltd. Major goals: The Data Analysis Coordinating Center (CC) will be responsible for using a Sentinel type model to obtain data from the four Data Partners participating in the ongoing Opioid Post Marketing Requirement (PMR) Consortium Study 1b to assess the incidence and risk factors of opioid overdose and death among extended release and long-acting opioid analgesics. The CC will ensure data quality, conduct data management, and write standardized SAS or R programs to run distributed analyses. GHRI will serve as the Statistical Core for the CC and will develop the statistical analysis plan, work with the CC to carryout analyses, compile results, and help interpret and report findings. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Jennifer C. Nelson.

Long-Term Mental Health Outcomes of Bariatric Surgery

A five-year, $558,758 grant from National Institute on Drug Abuse. Major goals: To conduct a retrospective study of veterans from 2002-2011 to examine long-term trends of alcohol misuse, changes in opioid use, and changes in depression treatment among bariatric surgery patients and matched non-surgical patients with and without history of alcohol use disorder (AUD), examine long-term among bariatric surgery patients and matched patients with and without opioid use at baseline. We will also examine whether AUD history, baseline opioid use, and baseline depression treatment moderate the effect of bariatric surgery on long-term weight change. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is David E. Arterburn.

National Committee Quality Assurance (NCQA) Alcohol Screening and Follow Up Field Testing

A five-month, $25,000 grant from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Major goals: To test NCQA (National Committee for Quality Assurance)'s new measure for brief alcohol interventions. The principal investigator is Katharine A. Bradley.

Pragmatic Trial Comparing Telehealth Care and Clinic-based Care for Uncontrolled High Blood Pressure

A four-year, $164,887 grant from Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Major goals: Aim 1: To demonstrate in a pragmatic cluster-randomized trial in patients with uncontrolled hypertension that blood pressure (BP) is lowered, BP control is improved, and 10-year predicted cardiovascular (CV) risk is reduced with pharmacist-led telecare; Aim 2: To determine if patient satisfaction with care is improved with pharmacist-led telehealth care compared with clinic-based care; Aim 3: To use mixed methods analysis and the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework to assess adoption, implementation, reach and maintenance of pharmacist-led telehealth care to improve CV risk factors in patients with uncontrolled high blood pressure. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Beverly B. Green.

Project Orca: Integrating Cost Communication into Clinical Care

A one-year, $233,702 grant from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Major goals: We propose to conduct an internal and external environmental scan, including patients and families, all staff who “touch” a patient’s journey to finding cost information. Through a series of semi-structured interviews we will identify handoffs that happen in the current state as well as any breakdowns in the process. The principal investigator is Nora Henrikson.


November 2016

Group Health Research Institute recently received word of seven new awards.

Bayesian Hierarchical Models for the Design and Analysis of Studies to Individualize Healthcare

A three-year, $84,278 grant from Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Major goals: To develop a Bayesian hierarchical model for longitudinal data that predicts the health state, trajectory, and intervention effects for each member of a clinical population, to iteratively build, test, and refine the model in three case studies, and to implement the statistical methods in an open source, easily-extensible R-package. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Yates Coley.

Blood Pressure Checks for Diagnosing Hypertension (BP-CHECK)

A three-year, $2,740,270 grant from Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Major goals: In a pragmatic randomized controlled trial, we will assess the acceptability of three methods for confirming a new diagnosis or existing hypertension with uncontrolled blood pressure (BP) and the accuracy for each of the methods (Clinic, BP Kiosk, or BP telemonitoring) compared to ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, the impact of diagnostic methods, and diagnosis of high blood pressure on patient-centered outcomes. The principal investigator is Beverly B. Green.

Family Network Approach to Assess the Trickle-Down Effect of Genetic Testing

A one-year, $153,785 grant from National Human Genome Research Institute. Major goals: To provide, from a health systems perspective, preliminary recommendations and lessons learned for identifying, approaching, and following candidates for expanding testing for family members at risk as identified through the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE) III network. It will also provide crucial preliminary data for further empiric study in this ready. The principal investigator is Eric B. Larson.

GeoCoding the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE) Consortium

A nine-month, $72,000 grant from National Human Genome Research Institute. Major goals: To perform geocoding across all samples in the eMERGE consortium in order to derive environmental exposures that will be used in gene environment (GxE) interaction analyses across the consortium. The principal investigator is Eric B. Larson.

Institute for High Quality Care (IHQC) – Blue Shield of California Foundation (BSCF) Patient Engagement

A six-month, $59,866 grant from Blue Shield of California Foundation. Major goals: To develop a survey tool that community clinic consortia can administer to their member clinics in order to assess current capacity for patient engagement activities, to support the consortia in the administration of the assessment, to report results back to the consortia and the clinics, and to inform the development of a technical assistance program related to patient engagement. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Lisa Schafer.

Pragmatic Risk Score to Identify Patients at Risk of Severe Hypoglycemia

A six-month, $14,914 grant from Food and Drug Administration. Major goals: To test a model predicting hypoglycemic events in patients with diabetes at Group Health. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is James D. Ralston.

Risk Adjustment of Primary Care Panels

A three-month, $7,538 grant from Group Health Permanente. Major goals: To create a method for adjusting Primary Care panels at Group Health that takes into account not only patient complexity (case mix) but also demand (visit volume). Such a method would aim to increase fairness among Primary Care providers and would allow more equitable distribution of Primary Care resources across medical centers. Group Health Permanente would use this method to risk adjust panels in Q4 2016 and at regular intervals going forward. The principal investigator is Paula Lozano


October 2016

Group Health Research Institute recently received word of 18 new awards.

2014 Sentinel Infrastructure Task Order Activity 1–4

A one-year, $368,484 grant from Food and Drug Administration. Major goals: Sentinel is part of the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) Initiative for improving the Agency’s ability to quickly identify and assess drug safety issues. The current goals are to update and add to the Sentinel Common Data Model, harmonize and characterize processes initiated on the pool of existing clinical data elements, analyze and characterize existing clinical data elements to inform best use of these data for Sentinel, run queries on questions related to drug safety, develop and evaluate methods for active safety surveillance, and work through the “nuts and bolts” of designing safety assessments using multiple existing electronic healthcare data systems. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Denise M. Boudreau.

 

Air Pollution, the Aging Brain, and Alzheimer's Disease

A five-year, $320,015 grant from National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Major goals: This study provides an extraordinary opportunity to develop comprehensive insights into the effects of air pollution on the aging brain, including the effects of air pollution on cognition, the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, and various potential mechanisms of neurodegenerative disease and cerebrovascular disease. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Eric B. Larson.

 

Collection of Patient‐Provided Information through a Mobile Device Application to Support Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Sentinel

A one-year, $275,152 grant from Food and Drug Administration. Major goals: To develop a generalizable approach for collecting patient-reported data via a mobile platform to support medical product safety surveillance. We will develop and pilot test a mobile device platform to capture data from pregnant women (e.g., medical product exposures, outcomes, risk factors and confounders) that will be matched with electronic health data. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Sascha Dublin.

 

Comparative Effectiveness of Breast Cancer Screening and Diagnostic Evaluation by Extent of Breast Density

A five-year, $2,237,327 grant from Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Major goals: We will use the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC) to evaluate how breast density can be applied to personalize breast cancer screening & diagnosis decisions:

Aim 1: Compare the effectiveness of breast cancer screening using digital mammography alone vs. digital mammography plus supplemental screening (tomosynthesis, ultrasound, or MRI) by extent of breast density on patient-reported and clinical outcomes.

Aim 2: Compare the effectiveness of preoperative MRI vs. no MRI by extent of breast density on patient-reported and clinical outcomes among women with DCIS and early stage breast cancer. The principal investigator is Diana L. Miglioretti.

 

Cottage Health Evaluation Support

A five-month, $57,939 grant from Cottage Health. Major goals: To provide evaluation technical assistance inside and outside the health system, help assess and inform future Community Benefits strategies, develop an RFP that encompasses the shift from individual grants to grants within an initiative that are intended for community-level, population health impact, and support Health Leads work. The principal investigator is Allen Cheadle.

 

Designing and Testing an Informatics Tool to Aid Prescribers in Reducing Anticholinergic Burden in Older Adults

A one-year, $117,118 grant from National Institute on Aging. Major goals: Medications with anticholinergic (ACh) properties can lead to adverse outcomes in the elderly. To improve prescribing practices and drug safety, we will design and test a tool that calculates and visually displays an alert of the cumulative anticholinergic burden from the patient’s currently used medications in the electronic health record. To best meet the needs of the end users of the tool, we will engage key stakeholders (e.g., physicians, pharmacists, IT leaders) throughout the design and testing process. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Denise M. Boudreau.

 

Medication Exposure in Pregnancy Risk Evaluation Program

A five-year, $58,543 grant from Food and Drug Administration. Major goals: To maintain all data confidentiality, integrity, and linkage data collected during the first phase of the MEPREP. Report provided quarterly documenting the data integrity of Medication Exposure in Pregnancy Risk Evaluation Program (MEPREP) cohort. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Sascha Dublin.

 

Pancreatic Cancer Screening Topic Refinement

A one-year, $125,000 grant from Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Major goals: To support the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force by conducting and completing a topic refinement on the Screening for Pancreatic Cancer topic. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Nora Henrikson.

 

Partnership to Improve Bariatric Surgery Outcomes with Mobile Technology

A one-year, $142,096 grant from Group Health Foundation. Major goals: To build and implement a low-burden, low-cost, and effective lifestyle behavior support program that will be integrated into clinical care for Group Health patients who undergo bariatric surgery. The principal investigator is Predrag Klasnja.

 

Public Health Institute (PHI)- California Leadership Academy for the Public Health (CaLAPH) Cohort 3

A one-year, $10,000 grant from The California Endowment. Major goals: CCHE will provide monitoring and evaluation services to the California Leadership Academy for the Public's Health (CaLAPH) program, coordinate closely with CHLP staff on program design and implementation, and share the results of the program with CHLP and The California Endowment. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Maggie Jones.

 

Pilot: Pain Management Trial/Opioid Taper Willingness

A three-month, $7,120 grant from Group Health Research Institute Directors Project Resource Fund. Major goals: To query patients using long-term opioid therapy about their willingness to engage in a future study with a pain self-management intervention that includes an optional opioid dose taper. This pilot will inform development of a pragmatic randomized trial of an intervention to improve self-management of pain and an optional taper of opioids among persons in the Group Health delivery system who are chronically using opioids for pain management. The principal investigator is Denise M. Boudreau.

 

PRimary care Opioid Use Disorders (PROUD) Treatment Trial - Phase 1

A one-year, $1,332,416 grant from National Institute on Drug Abuse. Major goals: Phase 1 of the PROUD trial is evaluating the incidence and prevalence of opioid use disorders (OUDs), OUD treatment, and acute care use among patients with OUD in primary care across 10 health care systems.  Phase 1 of PROUD will also select sites for the PROUD trial, planned to begin summer 2017. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Katharine A. Bradley.

 

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Alcohol Outcomes and Health Service

A one-year, $80,000 grant from National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Major goals: To use the intersectionality theoretical framework to investigate racial/ethnic differences in patterns of alcohol treatment utilization and drinking outcomes. The principal investigator is Joseph E. Glass.

 

Validation Study on Uterine Perforation and Breast Feeding in Electronic Medical Record Databases

A one-year, $230,000 grant from Bayer Pharmaceutical Co. Major goals: To validate algorithms or natural language processing (NLP) terms used to identify possible cases of uterine perforation and IUD expulsion by reviewing and comparing with the medical records and/or physician notes and determine the feasibility of ascertaining breast feeding status at the time of IUD insertion from the EMR data. The principal investigator is Delia Scholes


September 2016

Group Health Research Institute recently received word of 20 new awards.

ACT Data Query Tool

An eight-month, $155,477 grant from National Institute on Aging. Major goals: To develop a web-based, publicly-available data query tool for researchers to obtain preliminary counts and frequencies on the ACT study population to aid new grant and paper proposal development. This tool will enhance the ACT Study’s ability to share the data resources we’ve developed over the past 20+ years. The principal investigator is Eric B. Larson.

Addiction Research Network (ARN) Supplement (CTN-0072): Examine Patient and System-Level Factors Associated with Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) Alcohol and Other Drug Disorders (AOD) – Initiation and Engagement in Treatment (IET) Measure Performance across Health Systems

A one-year, $69,731 grant from National Institute on Drug Abuse. Major goals: To examine how performance on the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) Alcohol and Other Drug Disorders (AOD) Initiation and Engagement in Treatment (IET) measures vary by patient and system factors, which may point to opportunities to intervene or improve in treatment initiation and engagement. In studying this across health systems, this study aims to provide findings that will demonstrate how systems can better respond to patients and engage them in treatment. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Gwen Lapham.

Advancing Implementation Science through Measure Development and Evaluation

A two-year, $744,051 grant from National Institute of Mental Health. Major goals: To develop psychometrically strong and pragmatic measures and methods for implementation science. Specifically, we will generate a reliable and valid pragmatic measures rating criteria; develop three new measures of implementation outcomes (i.e. acceptability, feasibility, appropriateness); and assess the psychometric and pragmatic quality of existing measures of 46 implementation-relevant constructs. The principal investigator is Cara C. Lewis.

Efficacy of Scalable Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) in Older Adults with Osteoarthritis Pain

A five-year, $1,578,316 grant from National Institute on Aging. Major goals: Determine through a randomized trial if a telephone-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) intervention improves short-term and long-term sleep, fatigue and quality of life outcomes compared to an education-only attention control group in a primary care population of older adults with moderate to severe chronic osteoarthritis and comorbid insomnia. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Michael R. Von Korff.

Engaging Patients in Health Care Systems Research Network (HCSRN): Fall Methods Workshop

An eight-month, $4,054 grant from Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Major goals: To address the underdeveloped area of impact assessment methodologies and the lack of consensus in theory or practice on which of the few existing assessment frameworks offer the engagement practitioner the most adaptable tool for gathering usable data on the impacts of patient engagement, documenting desired outcomes, and consistent use of and reporting on impacts. To accomplish this objective, we will convene a methods development workshop in the fall of 2016 on the topic of assessment of engagement impacts which will foster downstream training opportunities for the HCSRN, their external partners, and the broader scientific/stakeholder community. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Leah Tuzzio.

Ensuring Pragmatic and Appropriate Learning within Health Care Delivery Systems: Design, Analysis, and Interpretation of Longitudinal Cluster Randomized Trials

A three-year, $148,519 grant from Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Major goals: The major goals for this project are: 1) Analysis, Interpretation, and Robustness: Selection of a primary analysis plan for stepped-wedge or cluster crossover studies requires choice of a statistical framework that can produce a meaningful treatment effect estimate that ideally is robust to model misspecification,  2) Design – Once an appropriate statistical framework and analysis strategy is chosen then possible design options need to be studied to detail scenarios in which the planned trial would allow likely detection of meaningful intervention effects, and 3) Monitor and Adapt – A final part of trial planning is to choose a strategy for using accruing data over time to monitor and potentially adapt a clinical trial. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Andrea J. Cook.

Extended Release (ER)/Long-Acting (LA) Opioid Post-Marketing Requirement Studies: Observational Study 1A (2065-1)

A four-year, $9,892,782 grant from Campbell Alliance, Ltd. Major goals: To quantify the serious risks of misuse, abuse, and addiction associated with long-term use of opioid analgesics for management of chronic pain among patients prescribed extended release/long acting opioid products. In addition, we will estimate how the risk of these outcomes varies by the presence of risk factors such as other substance use and psychiatric disorders among patients treated with opioids long-term. The principal investigator is Denise M. Boudreau.

Evaluation of the Home Visiting Services Account Programs Administered by Thrive By Five Washington

A one-year, $20,000 grant from Thrive by Five Washington. Major goals: To help select promising practice and research-based programs develop and implement an evaluation plan that will provide a more robust assessment of their impact on children and families; and to facilitate the implementation of a core set of aligned home visiting outcome measures, working with Thrive, the Department of Early Learning (DEL), and the Department of Health (DOH). The principal investigator is Allen Cheadle.

Expanding the Medical Assistant Role in Advancing Primary Care

A one-year, $64,946 grant from Group Health Foundation. Major goals: The purpose of this evaluation is to monitor and assess the implementation of the Expanding the Medical Assistant Role in Advancing Primary Health program in the Nursing Operations department at Group Health. The program will support key initiatives in the Group Practice, including Advancing Primary Care, reducing turnover of MA staff, and improving quality Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) outcomes specific to Medicare five star. The evaluation focus will be on (1) evaluating the MA training program; and (2) assessing the degree to which trained MAs were integrated into the primary care teams – including facilitators and challenges – using three clinic case studies.

The principal investigator is Katie Coleman.

Financial Incentives to Increase Colorectal Cancer Screening in Priority Populations

A one-year, $149,645 grant from National Cancer Institute. Major goals: To test whether providing financial incentives increases Colorectal Cancer (CRC) screening in populations with lower screening rates -minority groups, low income groups, and patients with less interactions with the health care system. The principal investigator is Beverly B. Green.

HemoLink Study to Evaluate Device Efficiency on a Representative Population Range for Standard Lab Analysis

A two-year, $147,036 grant from Department of Defense. Major goals: To evaluate the performance of the HemoLink blood collection device. The principal investigator is Lisa A. Jackson.

Improved Medication Adherence and Dementia

A one-year, $16,943 grant from University of Washington. Major goals: To characterize and examine the patterns of medication adherence to chronic cardiovascular medications in older adults who have developed dementia, and understand how these associations relate to other health outcomes. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Eric B. Larson.

Improved Medication Adherence Interventions

A one-year, $5,000 grant from University of Washington. Major goals: To characterize and examine the patterns of medication adherence to chronic cardiovascular medications in older adults who have developed dementia, and understand how these associations relate to other health outcomes. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Eric B. Larson.

Molecular Phenotyping in Alzheimer's Disease

A five-year, $199,835 grant from National Institute on Aging. Major goals: To examine to what extent different forms of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) dementia share a common molecular impact of common co-morbidities on molecular phenotype. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Eric B. Larson.

Opt-in 2.0 - Implementing and Expanding Fee Estimate Capabilities in Oncology

A one-year, $67,490 grant from Group Health Foundation. Major goals: The major goals of this project are to (1) complete per-cycle cost estimates for all 250 chemotherapy protocols used at Group Health; (2) partner with Patient Access and Business Operations (PABO) to get the protocols posted into Epic where they are more easily maintained, and (3) to explore patient experience of the new resource. The principal investigator is Nora Henrikson.

Patient Engagement - Comparative Effectiveness of Breast Cancer Screening and Diagnostic Evaluation by Extent of Breast Density

A five-year, $226,923 grant from Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Major goals: We will use the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC) to evaluate how breast density can be applied to personalize breast cancer screening & diagnosis decisions. Aim 1: Compare the effectiveness of breast cancer screening using digital mammography alone vs. digital mammography plus supplemental screening (tomosynthesis, ultrasound, or MRI) by extent of breast density on patient-reported and clinical outcomes. Aim 2: Compare the effectiveness of preoperative MRI vs. no MRI by extent of breast density on patient-reported and clinical outcomes among women with DCIS and early stage breast cancer. The principal investigator is Diana L. Miglioretti.

Pragmatic Trial of Population-Based Programs to Prevent Suicide Attempt

A one-year, $504,177 grant from National Institute of Mental Health. Major goals: Request for supplemental funds to add 4th study site at Kaiser Permanente Northwest (KPNW). The principal investigator is Gregory E. Simon.

Shared decision making “Feed Forward” Questionnaire (FFQ) in Ortho

A one-year, $41,827 grant from Group Health Foundation. Major goals: To implement a “Feed Forward” Questionnaire (FFQ) for patients with knee or hip osteoarthritis. The questionnaire asks patients their preferences and assesses their knowledge of the benefits and risks of surgical treatments. The FFQ will be placed in the electronic medical record, intended to help guide a shared decision making conversation between patient and provider. The principal investigator is Ellen O'Meara.

Support Workgroup Activities for Task Order 12

A two-year, $13,642 grant from Food and Drug Administration. Major goals: To provide support to run standard workplans on the Mini-Sentinel Distributed Dataset (MSDD) on an ad hoc basis as directed by the Sentinel Operating Center (SOC). The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Denise M. Boudreau.

United States Renal Data System (USRDS) Special Study Center on Palliative and End-of-Life Care

A three-year, $133,711 grant from National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Major goals: To describe contemporary advance care planning practices among Veterans with Advanced Kidney Disease within the VA and to elicit the perspectives of patients with advanced kidney disease, families, and providers on optimal approaches to advance care planning. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Yoshio Hall.

UW Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Career Development Program K-12 2016-2017

A one-year, $5,000 grant from Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Major goals: To provide mentorship to junior investigators in K-12 Career Development program in patient-centered outcomes research. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Karen Wernli


August 2016

Group Health Research Institute recently received word of five new awards.

ALL HEART Phase II

A two-year, $189,693 grant from Kaiser Foundation Hospitals Southern California Region. Major goals: To support the ongoing evaluation of the ALL HEART program in Southern California. The principal investigator is Maggie Jones.

Effectiveness of Gastric Sleeve vs. Gastric Bypass for Cardiovascular Disease

A four-year, $306,422 grant from National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Major goals: Aim 1: Compare the effectiveness of vertical sleeve gastrectomy (VSG) and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) in remission of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) risk factors and reduction in overall CVD risk using advanced statistical and econometric techniques; Aim 2: Compare VSG and RYGB surgical safety using similar methods to Aim 1; and Aim 3: Understand the treatment effect heterogeneity in remission of CVD risk factors, reduction in overall CVD risk, and safety outcomes for patients with different racial/ethnic backgrounds, sexes, and disease burdens at surgery. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is David E. Arterburn.

Community Benefit (CB) Dashboard

A one-year, $69,000 grant from Kaiser Foundation Health Plan. Major goals: To support the development of quarterly community benefit dashboards. The principal investigator is Maggie Jones.

Prospective Annual Estimates of Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness and Burden of Disease

A five-year, $4,590,003 grant from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Major goals: To enroll patients seeking care for acute respiratory illness, test enrollees for influenza and verify enrollees' vaccination history, estimate influenza vaccine effectiveness, and estimate burden of influenza and cases prevented by vaccination. The principal investigator is Michael L. Jackson.

Risk of Long-Term Cognitive Dysfunction, Alzheimer's Disease, and Related Dementias Following Surgery with General Anesthesia

A two-year, $215,272 grant from Johnson & Johnson. Major goals: To develop a Neuro-lingustic programming (NLP) algorithm for cognitive impairment. The principal investigator is Robert Penfold.


July 2016

Group Health Research Institute recently received word of seven new awards.

Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) Biologics and Biosimilars Collective Intelligence Consortium (BBCIC)

A one-year, $88,819 grant from Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy. Major goals: The purpose of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) Biologics and Biosimilars Collective Intelligence Consortium (BBCIC) is to establish a distributed research network focused on generating real world evidence on the clinical outcomes of novel biologics, their corresponding biosimilars, and other related products. The scope of the research includes population characterization and evidence generation on clinical effectiveness and safety outcomes. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Denise M. Boudreau.

End Of Life (EOL) Pilot Interviews

A three-month, $5,583 grant from Group Health Research Institute. Major goals: To understand patient and family member perspectives on end of life care in adolescents and young adults. The principal investigator is Karen Wernli.

Evidence-Based Practice Center (EPC) IV TO 5: Child and Maternity Health Workgroup

A three-year, $18,726 grant from Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Major goals: To assist the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) in responding to public comments on two systematic evidence reviews completed in 2016: Screening Children and Adolescents for Familial Hypercholesterolemia and Screening Children and Adolescents for Multifactorial Dyslipidemia. These systematic evidence reviews were conducted for the USPSTF by the Kaiser Permanente Research Affiliates Evidence-Based Practice Center (KPRA EPC). The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Eric B. Larson.

Evaluation of the Kresge Foundation's Healthy Futures Fund

A four-year, $299,706 grant from Kresge Foundation. Major goals: The Kresge Foundation seeks an evaluation partner that can develop and execute an evaluation strategy consisting of two components: 1) A process analysis (Phase I) consisting of qualitative research designed to understand the types of partnerships formed by affordable housing and Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) project operators and their likely effects on the populations they serve; and 2) An outcomes analysis (Phase II) consisting of collection and analysis of outcomes data for Healthy Futures Fund (HFF)-funded projects. The contractor will design and help selected HFF grant and loan recipients and/or their partners implement client-level data collection systems to record information about the effects that HFF-funded projects have had on clients’ lives. The contractor will analyze these data and include the results in their final evaluation report. The principal investigator is Emily Bourcier.

Federal Drug Administration (FDA)/Multiple Sclerosis (MS)/Innovation in Medical Evidence Development and Surveillance (IMEDS) Sequential Surveillance White Paper

A one-year, $20,866 grant from Food and Drug Administration. Major goals: Within FDA’s uses of Sentinel, an important class of investigation is Sequential Surveillance. Formal sequential surveillance involves specified exposures and outcomes and repeated assessments of association as data accumulate, until a further action seems appropriate. The action could be deeper investigation, regulatory action, or a decision that the likelihood of meaningful risk is so small as to justify discontinuing surveillance. Informal repeated checks on the data also arise because new information may cause the Agency to revisit earlier analyses or reformulate earlier questions. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Jennifer C. Nelson.

Incidence and Predictors of Opioid Overdose and Death among Extended-Release (ER)/Long-Acting (LA) Opioid Analgesics Users as Measured by Diagnoses and Death Records - A Retrospective Database Study

A three-year, $849,809 grant from Campbell Alliance, Ltd. Major goals: To measure the incidence and predictors of opioid overdose and death among pain patients through algorithms using claims data, diagnostic codes, and death records in order to reduce serious adverse outcomes resulting from inappropriate prescribing, misuse, and abuse of Extended-Release (ER)/ Long-Acting (LA) opioid analgesics while maintaining appropriate patient access to pain medications. Adverse outcomes of concern include addiction, unintentional overdose, and death. The FDA is requiring ER/LA opioid analgesic non-disclosure agreement (NDA) holders to conduct post-marketing studies and a clinical trial to assess these risks. The principal investigator is David S. Carrell.

Short and Long Term Effects of Antibiotics on Childhood Growth

A two-year, $26,230 grant from Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Major goals: To assess the comparative effects of different types, timing, and amount of antibiotic use in the first 2 years of life with (Aim 1) body mass index (BMI) and obesity at ages 5 and 10 years and (Aim 2) growth trajectories to age 5 years. In Aim 3, we will examine effect modification (~heterogeneity of treatment effect) according to several a priori specified socio-demographic, clinical, and maternal variables. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is David E. Arterburn.


June 2016

Group Health Research Institute recently received word of 12 new awards.

Adult Obesity

A three-year, $11,808 grant from Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Major goals: To assist the Kaiser Permanente Research Affiliates (KPRA) team with article (11,000) data abstraction, and quality rating. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Eric B. Larson.

An Exploration of the Potential, Value and Future Needs of HCA Data within the Sentinel Distributed Database (SDD)

A six-month, $57,328 grant from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Major goals: To better understand the current and future analytic potential, value, and needs of HCA’s data within Sentinel, given the uniqueness of their data vis-à-vis other Sentinel Data Partner data sources. This project represents a focused and detailed exploration with the ultimate goal of enabling the FDA to make reliable and informed decisions about what types of regulatory questions can potentially be addressed, if the FDA makes key investments and additions to the common data model and analytic tool development. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Denise M. Boudreau.

Center for Care Innovations’ ReImagined Care Program

A one-year, $60,000 grant from Blue Shield of California Foundation. Major goals: To conduct a developmental evaluation of the Center for Care Innovations’ ReImagined Care program, including how innovation is occurring in the grantee clinics, lessons learned, and impact of the investments. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Lisa Schafer.

Cottage Health – Population Health Learning Lab (PHLL) Toolkit

An eight-month, $95,000 grant from Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. Major goals: Center Community Health and Evaluation (CCHE) will work with Cottage Health to develop materials for an online toolkit that will include resources for non-profits in Santa Barbara County related to 1) assessment and program planning, and 2) program evaluation. The principal investigator is Maggie Jones.

End Of Life (EOL) Pilot Interviews

A three-month, $5,583 grant from Group Health Research Institute. Major goals: To understand patient and family member perspectives on end of life care in adolescents and young adults. The principal investigator is Karen Wernli.

Evaluating the Performance of Mini-Sentinel Analytic Modules Using Simulation Experiments

A two-year, $146,382 grant from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Major goals: 1) To provide an expert review of the use of sequential methods for drug safety surveillance within the FDA’s Sentinel program, and 2) to produce a white paper that describes issues that need to be addressed when conducting sequential surveillance in Sentinel that might be considered for future FDA guidance documents. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Jennifer C. Nelson.

Evaluation of FACES for the Future Coalition

A five-month, $20,000 grant from The California Wellness Foundation. Major goals: To evaluate the spread of the FACES program and increase consistency of data reporting across existing programs. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Diana Charbonneau.

Evaluation of the California FreshWorks Fund

A one-month, $19,990 grant from Capital Impact Partners. Major goals: To assess the impact of the California FreshWorks Fund grant program and produce 3-5 case studies. The principal investigator is Emily Bourcier.

Implementing the Action Framework of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's (RWJF) Supporting Provider Engagement in Value in Health Care Program, Phase 2

A two-year, $2,197,684 grant from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Major goals: Over the past year, we developed an action-planning framework for use by health care organizations to support provider engagement in efforts to reduce overuse and promote the appropriate use of health care services. The major goals of this project are to build experiential evidence to support the usefulness of the framework and build on that learning to spread the framework and its use as widely and rapidly as possible. The principal investigator is Michael L. Parchman.

National Trends in End-of-Life Care for Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Patients

A two-year, $401,042 grant from National Cancer Institute. Major goals: To describe national trends in use of services and interventions in the last year of life for adolescent and young adult cancer patients and to conduct qualitative interviews to understand patient, care giver, and physician choices in end-of-life care for adolescents and young adults. The principal investigator is Karen Wernli.

Sentinel Initiative: Utilizing Data from Various Data Partners in a Distributed Manner

A one-year, $12,485 grant from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Major goals: The project will expand upon existing work in the field by integrating one or more distributed regression technical approaches within an existing distributed network. Specifically, our approach will leverage the widely-used PopMedNet platform to automate the multi-step interactive process required to perform the distributed analysis. The proposed work will be the first to establish the viability of fully distributed regression within a secure, functional, and diverse distributed network. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Denise M. Boudreau.

Tai Chi for Chronic Low Back Pain in Older Adults

A three-year, $758,116 grant from National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Major goals: To establish preliminary data on feasibility of Tai Chi for older adults who have multiple health concerns. The principal investigator is Karen J. Sherman


May 2016

GHRI recently received word of eight new awards.

A Targeted Approach to a Safer Use of Antipsychotics in Youth

A five-year, $9,658,552 grant from National Institute of Mental Health. Major goals: The initiative is articulated around the following specific objectives, which will function as sequential phases (i.e., contract options):

A. PHASE 1 - Develop an algorithmic approach to the treatment of non-psychotic behavioral and mood disturbances of youth that minimizes antipsychotic exposure by using non-antipsychotic interventions first and, in case of use of antipsychotics, limiting their use to acute stabilization.

B. PHASE 2 - Pilot-test the algorithm(s) for feasibility, acceptability, preliminary effectiveness.

C. PHASE 3 - Test the effectiveness of the algorithmic approach vs. usual care in practice settings, using a mental health research network, and identify moderators and mediators of treatment outcome. The principal investigator is Robert Penfold.

A U.S. Study of Endometriosis: Case-finding, Incidence, and Patterns of Care in a Population-based Cohort

A 15-month, $358,498 grant from Bayer Pharmaceutical Co. Major goals: To estimate the incidence of endometriosis in a US population-based cohort of women. The principal investigator is Delia Scholes.

End of Life (EOL) Pilot Interviews

A three-month, $5,583 grant from Group Health Research Institute. Major goals: To understand patient and family member perspectives on end of life care in adolescents and young adults. The principal investigator is Karen Wernli.

Integrated Versus Referral Care for Complex Psychiatric Disorders in Rural Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs)

A five-year, $230,616 grant from Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Major goals: To determine whether it is better to support primary care providers’ treatment of patients with Bipolar Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder through an integrated care model or to use telemedicine technology to facilitate referrals to offsite mental health specialists. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Evette J. Ludman.

MenA Modeling Validation, Impact, and Serogroup Replacement

A one-year, $125,961 grant from GAVI. Major goals: To validate an existing MenA simulation model using updated surveillance data, forecast the impact of MenA vaccination on serogroup A meningococcal disease in Africa, and develop a model to look for possible serogroup replacement following MenA vaccination. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Michael L. Jackson.

Surveillance of Opioid Prescribing in the VA

A one-year, $11,770 grant from Bristol Myers Squibb. Major goals: The goal of this project is to develop a surveillance system for opioid prescribing in the VA. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Robert Penfold.

Understanding How Parents Make the Decision to Delay or Skip Vaccinations

A nine-month, $102,739 grant from Group Health Foundation. Major goals: To gain a deeper understanding of how parents of young children are making decisions about whether to skip or delay vaccines by conducting a series of focus groups with parents who have skipped or delayed vaccines and pregnant women considering skipping or delaying vaccines. The principal investigator is Clarissa Hsu.

Use of a Novel Parent-Report Measure to Improve Childhood Vaccine Uptake

A two-year, $286,437 grant from National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Major goals: Specific Aim 1: Conduct a randomized controlled trial to determine the effect of administering and communicating Parental Attitudes About Vaccines (PACV) scores and responses to pediatric providers prior to health supervision visits on a child’s immunization status at 19 months of age. We will randomize 600 vaccine-hesitant parents of newborns into either a control group, in which they will receive usual care, or an intervention group, in which they will be administered the PACV prior to their child’s 2, 6 and 12 month health supervision visits and have their PACV overall scores and responses electronically communicated to their child’s doctor prior to each visit. Our primary outcome will be mean percent days under-immunized for the 22 recommended doses of 8 vaccines by 19 months of age. We will compare the mean percentage of days under-immunized among children in the intervention and control groups using multivariate linear regression, adjusting for parent demographics as well as provider and visit characteristics.

Specific Aim 2: Characterize the effect of the receipt of parental PACV scores and responses on provider communication with vaccine-hesitant parents. We will administer a post-trial survey to all participating providers to assess the impact parental PACV scores and responses had on the structure, content, and quality of their immunization discussion with parents. Specifically, we will assess what changes they may have made in their immunization discussions given their knowledge of the extent and nature of a parent’s vaccine hesitancy prior to the visit.

Specific Aim 3: Determine parent visit experience among intervention and control groups. We will administer a self-administered parent experience survey to control and intervention participants after their child’s 12 month health supervision visit and score it using the stringent top-box method. We will use multivariate logistic regression to determine whether a highly-rated parent visit experience is similar between intervention and control groups, adjusting for parent demographics as well as provider and visit characteristics. The Group Health Research Institute lead investigator is Nora Henrikson


April 2016

GHRI recently received word of four new awards.

Clonotyping Technology for Prediction of Antibiotic Resistance

A three-year, $249,184 grant from National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Major goals: To develop a novel point of care diagnostic approach to guide empirical antibiotic treatment for urinary tract infections. The approach will be based on rapid identification of bacteria directly in urine samples, identifying species and the sub-species’ clonotype of the infecting strain. This approach will utilize microevolutionary bioinformatics, epidemiologic surveillance, and molecular diagnostics tools. In addition to E. coli, the diagnostic testing will be expanded to cover urinary isolates of Klebsiella, Enterobacter, and Proteus. The GHRI lead investigator is Delia Scholes.

Heart Steps: Adaptive mHealth Intervention for Physical-Activity Maintenance

A four-year, $1,299,350 grant from National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Major goals: To design and evaluate a personalized, adaptive mHealth intervention for use on mobile phones. This intervention will enable individuals with heart disease to stay focused on their health goals, engage in opportunistic physical activity throughout the day, and build robust and sustainable physical-activity habits that help reduce and keep down their cardiac risks. Part of the project will also develop the micro-randomized trial design, a new experimental design for optimizing just-in-time adaptive interventions. The principal investigator is Predrag Klasnja

Implementation of a Specialty Disease Management Program Among Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

A three-month, $4,070 grant from Group Health Research Institute Director Project Resource Fund. Major goals: To evaluate the clinical and economic outcomes of an integrated specialty pharmacy and chronic disease management program for multiple sclerosis at Group Health. The program supports patient adherence to high-cost, high-value multiple sclerosis drugs in order to maximize medication benefits and maintain affordability for patients and the health plan. The evaluation will analyze pharmacy and medical claims and cost data to assess whether the program is contributing to good patient outcomes and overall health care savings and has the potential for sustainability and scaling. The principal investigator is Allen Cheadle

Interventions to Improve Patient Engagement in Value Decisions

A 10-month, $120,780 grant from Group Health Research Institute Development Fund.  Major goals: To perform and evaluate targeted outreach interventions for the transparency web tool that health plan members will gain access to on January 1, 2016 through My Group Health. The purpose of the pilot interventions is to evaluate if and how targeted outreach can be used to reduce total and out-of-pocket spending on patient care services in the contracted network, as well as to assess whether outreach effects are modified by a member’s benefits structure. The principal investigator is David C. Grossman.  


March 2016

GHRI recently received word of eight new awards.

A Machine-Learning Approach to Identify Alzheimer’s Disease Therapeutic Targets

A two-year, $44,977 grant from National Institute on Aging. Major Goals: To enable the use of molecular profiles (e.g., expression, genetic, and proteomic data) of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients to facilitate identification of therapeutic targets. The growing availability of expression profiles of brain tissues from AD patients and normal subjects holds great promise for improving our molecular-level understanding of AD and developing new drugs. The most important step to realizing this goal is identifying molecular features in these data such as expression levels of certain genes that predict AD phenotypes that indicate disease progression including neuropathological and clinical phenotypes. The GHRI lead investigator is Jennifer F. Bobb.

Center for Community Health and Evaluation (CCHE) Evaluation: Improving Adolescent Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Immunization Coverage through School-Based Health Centers

A one-year, $17,000 grant from Group Health Foundation. Major Goals: To consult on the evaluation design of an HPV vaccine promotion project in teen health centers, and lead the qualitative methods. The GHRI lead investigator is Emily Bourcier.

Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Predictors of Undiagnosed Dementia: A one-year, $40,000 grant from National Institute on Aging. Major Goals: To obtain pilot data and conduct analyses that will support future work to develop an automated score to identify patients likely to have undiagnosed dementia using EMR data. Specifically, we will explore novel EMR data suggesting chaotic patterns of care (e.g., missed clinic visits); describe patterns of health care utilization; and describe patterns of medication adherence in patients with undiagnosed dementia compared to patients without dementia. The GHRI lead investigator is Sascha Dublin.

End-of-Life Pilot Interviews

A three-month, $5,583 grant from Group Health Research Institute. Major Goals: To understand patient and family member perspectives on end-of-life care in adolescents and young adults. The principal investigator is Karen Wernli.

Joint Effect of Malpractice Risk and Financial Incentives on Cardiac Testing

A two-year, $32,144 grant from National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Major Goals: To evaluate the impact of changes in Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reimbursement for inpatient and outpatient cardiac procedures on utilization of these procedures. The GHRI lead investigator is Katherine M. Newton.

Multi-Site Evaluation of Innovative Oral Health Workforce Interventions

A 10-month, $179,787 grant from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Major Goals: To evaluate oral health outcomes associated with the application of fluoride varnish. The GHRI lead investigator is David C. Grossman.

Open Notes, Continued

A three-year, $66,156 grant from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Major Goals: To study and support the dissemination and implementation of Open Notes across the United States. The GHRI lead investigator is James D. Ralston.

Training Clinicians in Implementation Research to Improve Alcohol-related Care

A five-year, $916,646 grant from National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Major Goals: To support mentoring of promising early stage clinician investigators while conducting innovative research aimed at understanding how to use evidence-based electronic Health (eHealth) programs to support primary care physicians and patients in managing alcohol use disorders. The principal investigator is Katharine A. Bradley


February 2016

GHRI recently received word of 17 new awards.

2016 Seattle Symposium on Health Care Data Analytics

A one-year, $15,000 grant from Group Health Research Institute Development Fund. Major Goals: 1) To organize a second Seattle Symposium on health care data analytics that will convene investigators from GHRI and local and national academic institutions interested in statistical innovations in electronic health record data research; and 2) To publish a supplement of papers from this event in a special issue of a statistical or data analytics journal. The principal investigator is Andrea J. Cook.

Cancer Researchers Bridge Funding

A one-year, $122,997 grant from Group Health Research Institute Development Fund. Major Goals: To provide bridge funding support for cancer researchers as four major grants end and others are being resubmitted. The principal investigator is Erin J. Bowles.

Community Resource Specialist: Extension of Pilot and Evaluation

A one-year, $125,000 grant from Group Health Foundation. The principal investigator is Clarissa Hsu.

Conversations About Cancer Care for Adolescents and Young Adults

A one-year, $54,250 grant from Group Health Research Institute Development Fund. Major Goals: To interview additional patients, care givers and clinicians in the care of adolescents and young adults with advanced stage cancer on issues that are important to them for the end of their life. The principal investigator is Karen Wernli.

Development and Dissemination of Statistical Software for Estimating the Health Effects of Exposure to Multiple Risk Factors

A one-year, $2,970 grant from Group Health Research Institute Directors Project Resource Fund. Major Goals: To develop an open-source software package implementing novel statistical methods for estimating the health effects of concurrent exposure to multiple risk factors. The principal investigator is Jennifer F. Bobb.

Development of a mHealth Cessation App & GHRI Capacity Building

A one-year, $60,000 grant from Group Health Research Institute Development Fund. Major Goals: To test the effects of three mHealth design features on smoking abstinence and treatment utilization using a randomized factorial “screening experiment.” The experimental features of interest are: (1) on-demand, dynamically tailored advice and supportive encouragement; (2) a private online cessation support peer network; and (3) secure electronic messaging with a quit counselor. Results will inform the optimal design of future mHealth cessation programs. The principal investigator is Jennifer B. McClure.

End-of-life (EOL) Pilot Interviews

A three-month, $5,583 grant from Group Health Research Institute. Major Goals: To understand patient and family member perspectives on end-of-life care in adolescents and young adults. The principal investigator is Karen Wernli.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Sentinel Statistical Collaboration and Consulting Network

A 10-month, $40,720 grant from FDA. Major Goals: This Task Order will support the following four areas in which statistical consulting/collaboration and statistical programming opportunities exist: 1) providing the Sentinel Operations Center (SOC) with technical support on routine surveillance activities; 2) providing statistical programming collaboration and consultation for research and development purposes to increase the robustness of existing and more sophisticated modular program tools (such as the propensity score matching [PSM] analytic module of cohort identification and descriptive analysis [CIDA]); 3) developing code to enhance tools based on problems that arise or new needs that are identified; and 4) providing additional statistical programming activities. The GHRI lead investigator is Andrea J. Cook.

Food Environment, Diet Quality and Disparities in Obesity

A five-year, $178,928 grant from National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Major Goals: To examine whether measured changes in socioeconomic status (SES) variables and in environmental exposure can predict changes in diet quality, travel activity patterns and physical activity as well as body weight trajectories in the longer term. The GHRI lead investigator is Andrea J. Cook.

Montana Health Care Foundation—Connect Programmer

A eight-month, $9,939 grant from Montana Healthcare Foundation. Major Goals: To provide consultation to Community Health Partners on an evaluation plan for their Superutilizer Intervention. The principal investigator is Allen Cheadle.

National Leadership Academy For the Public’s Health (NLAPH) C5 Appalachia

A one-year, $15,000 grant from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Major Goals: To evaluate the impact of NLAPH programs on participants and to evaluate the effectiveness of the NLAPH program model. The GHRI lead investigator is Maggie Jones.

NLAPH C5 Ebola

A nine-month, $21,250 grant from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Major Goals: To evaluate the impact of NLAPH programs on participants and to evaluate the effectiveness of the NLAPH program model. The GHRI lead investigator is Maggie Jones.

NLAPH C5 Tribal

A one-year, $21,250 grant from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Major Goals: To evaluate the impact of NLAPH programs on participants and to evaluate the effectiveness of the NLAPH program model. The GHRI lead investigator is Maggie Jones.

NLAPH C5 U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI)

A one-year, $5,500 grant from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Major Goals: To evaluate the impact of NLAPH programs on participants and to evaluate the effectiveness of the NLAPH program model. The GHRI lead investigator is Maggie Jones.

National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network (PCORnet) Bariatric Study

A two-year, $4,499,133 grant from Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Major Goals: The main goal of this comparative effectiveness research study is to provide accurate estimates of the 1-, 3-, and 5-year benefits and risks of the three main surgical treatment options for severe obesity: Roux-en-y gastric bypass (RYGB), adjustable gastric banding (AGB), and sleeve gastrectomy (SG). The focus is on the outcomes that have been shown to be most important to adults and adolescents with severe obesity: 1) weight loss, 2) improvement in diabetes, and 3) risk of adverse events. The principal investigator is David E. Arterburn.

Pilot Testing a mHealth Lifestyle Intervention in Patients with Chronic Conditions—Social Teaming Pilot: Chronic Conditions Versus Depression

A one-year, $100,857 grant from Group Health Research Institute Development Fund. Major Goals: To evaluate the efficacy of social teaming through the NutriWalking app in Group Health patients through three specific aims: (1) develop social teaming metrics to build social cohesion; (2) test social teaming approach over 8 weeks in two Group Health populations of patients with (a) chronic conditions or (b) depression; and (3) compare social cohesion and outcomes of social teaming between patient groups. The principal investigator is Andrea Hartzler.

Stepped Telemental Health Care Intervention for Depression

A two-year, $84,456 grant from National Institute of Mental Health. Major Goals: To evaluate and compare telephone and internet-based cognitive-behavioral therapy treatments for depression. The GHRI lead investigator is Evette J. Ludman.

Community Resource Specialist (CRS): Extension of Pilot and Evaluation

A one-year, $125,000 grant from Group Health Foundation. Major Goals: To extend the CRS pilots in Rainier and Puyallup for an additional six months beyond the six-month extension that the delivery system has allocated and continue the current evaluation (but in a scaled-down mode) to increase the amount of data we have on the efficacy of this new role. The principal investigator is Clarissa Hsu.


January 2016

GHRI recently received word of 10 new awards.

BeneFITs to Increasing Colorectal Cancer Screening in Priority Populations

A four-year, $185,518 grant from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Major Goals: To conduct and evaluate a population-based pilot program of direct mailing of fecal immunochemical tests for screening asymptomatic low-income men and women ages 50-75 who are enrolled in Medicaid or Medicare. The ultimate goal is reducing mortality from colorectal cancer by increasing the number of people who are screened for colorectal cancer. The GHRI lead investigator is Beverly B. Green.

Cancer Survivor Survey on Electronic Cigarettes and Symptom Burden

A one-year, $128,729 grant from Group Health Research Institute Development Fund. Major Goals: To describe e-cigarette use and beliefs among lung and head and neck cancer survivors and estimate the prevalence of general and disease-specific symptoms in lung and head and neck cancer survivors. The principal investigator is Jessica Chubak.

Evaluating the Partnership for Innovation Think Tank

A one-year, $86,488 grant from Group Health Foundation. Major Goals: To provide support for the design and implementation of evaluations of Partnership for Innovation projects. The evaluations are intended to provide information about project impact as well as learnings that can be used in spreading the successful innovations across Group Health. The principal investigator is Allen Cheadle.

Evaluating the Performance of Propensity Score-Based Methods in Plausible Sentinel Surveillance Setting Using Simulation Experiment

A two-year, $140,430 grant from Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Major Goals: To systematically examine the performance of propensity score-based methods in plausible Sentinel surveillance settings using plasmode simulation experiments. This effort is designed to inform priorities for future methodological development within Sentinel for Active Risk Identification and Analysis (ARIA) in response to the 2008 FDA Amendments Act. The GHRI lead investigator is Jennifer C. Nelson.

Focus Group Toolkit

A five-month, $29,291 grant from Group Health Research Institute Development Fund. Major Goals: To create a tool kit for developing and conducting focus groups. This tool kit will be used internally at GHRI, and generalized for possible publication and outside use. The principal investigator is Clarissa Hsu.

Gestational Hypertension Focus Groups

A seven-month, $49,974 grant from Group Health Research Institute Development Fund. Major Goals: To conduct focus groups of women with gestational hypertension to solicit their perspectives on pharmacologic treatment and other interventions in pregnancy and to explore which outcomes women care most about to help guide future research. The principal investigator is Sascha Dublin.

Health Outcomes Survey

A three-month, $9,126 grant from Group Health Foundation. Major Goals: To determine the most effective way to improve our Health Outcome Survey (HOS) scores through a Partnership for Innovation grant by determining the best way to meet our patients’ concerns in each of the four HOS areas (mental health, physical activity, falls, and physical health). The program would target all 84,000 Medicare Advantage members, and randomize them into different arms. The GHRI lead investigator is Erin J. Bowles.

Health Impact Assessment Equity Metrics

A 10-month, $13,500 grant from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Major Goals: Heighten awareness of how to incorporate equity in Health Impact Assessment (HIA) practice using the Equity Metrics for HIA as an entry point. The GHRI lead investigator is Emily Bourcier.

NOR-204: A Phase II, Randomized, Double-Blind, Safety and Immunogenicity Trial of Norovirus GI.1/GII.4 Bivalent Virus-Like Particle Vaccine in Healthy Elderly Adults

A two-year, $532,000 grant from Takeda Pharmaceuticals. Major Goals: This clinical trial is designed to address the safety and immunogenicity of two formulations of the Norovirus GI.1/GII.4 bivalent virus-like particle vaccine in an elderly population. The principal investigator is Lisa A. Jackson.

Use of Cannabis for Chronic Pain: Exploratory Interviews with Key Stakeholders

An eight-month, $53,854 grant from Group Health Research Institute Development Fund. Major Goals: To conduct exploratory interviews with a range of stakeholders in the medical cannabis field, including retailers, policy makers and researchers. The principal investigator is Clarissa Hsu.