All Articles

• Vaccinations: A public health benefit

  Most parents choose to protect their children from diseases such as measles, meningitis, polio, and whooping cough through vaccinations. But a rising number opt not to vaccinate their children fully according to the recommended schedule, and many parents have concerns about the safety or necessity of vaccines.
• What characteristics make up effective patient engagement?

  While many health care providers and health care organizations stress the importance of patient engagement, they have a long way to go to achieve effective patient communication. Paula Lozano, MD, senior investigator with GHRI, discussed the role readiness and other factors play in a patient’s decision to make a change in their health and well-being.
• Delaying measles-related vaccines may raise seizure risk

  Delaying the first dose of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) and measles-mumps-rubella-varicella (MMRV) vaccines in children older than 15 months—outside the recommended schedule—may actually more than double the risk of fever-related seizures.
• 
  Digital mammograms have raised costs with only small health benefits

  The trend toward digital mammograms was given a mixed report card in the study Benefits, Harms, and Costs for Breast Cancer Screening After U.S. Implementation of Digital Mammography e-published on May 28 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
• Triple wins for the 2014 Birnbaum Award

  Each year at the Birnbaum Lecture, Group Health Research Institute presents the Birnbaum Award to Group Health staff who’ve made extraordinary contributions to the organization’s development as a learning health care system. At the 2014 Lecture, the award will be presented to people involved in three outstanding projects, all funded by Group Health’s Partnership for Innovation.
• 
  Dr. Buist named senior scholar in residence at AcademyHealth

  Diana Buist, PhD, MPH, is joining AcademyHealth as a Senior Scholar in Residence starting this month. In this position, she will apply her expertise in delivery system and multi-site projects to efforts to improve research translation and the speed with which evidence is effectively applied in health policy.
• CCHE answers burning questions in 2 groundbreaking reports

  Group Health Research Institute’s Center for Community Health and Evaluation conducted a three-year evaluation to assess the impact of health impact assessments in the United States and to identify elements critical for success.