People & Programs—January 2014

Dr. Whiteside selected for Zero Suicide Advisory Board

GHRI Research Associate Ursula Whiteside, PhD, was recently appointed to the Zero Suicide in Healthcare Advisory Board of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention. Zero Suicide is a national effort to change the way we think about suicide prevention in business, communities, and health care systems. As part of the 23-member board, Dr. Whiteside will help guide other organizations wishing to implement zero suicide in their behavioral health programs and create a framework to help primary care do the same. 

Dr. Whiteside and Sarah Stuckey, Group Health behavioral health regional manager, helped develop the Zero Suicide website and toolkit, which launched in October 2013. The toolkit offers successful examples, resources, and contacts to help business leaders, policymakers, and health care providers create a culture of zero suicide. Group Health, Henry Ford Health System, and Magellan of Arizona have successfully changed the suicide culture in their behavioral health systems and are helping lead the zero suicide approach in health care. A recent GHRI study is informing this work at Group Health and elsewhere.

Dr. Larson participates in G8 Dementia Summit

On December 11, Eric B. Larson, MD, MPH, GHRI’s executive director and Group Health’s vice president for research, joined international leaders at the G8 Dementia Summit in London. Sponsored by the United Kingdom’s Department of Health, the invitation-only meeting brought together health ministers, innovators, technology pioneers, researchers, and investors to explore new approaches to dementia. An expert on healthy aging and geriatrics, Dr. Larson participated in a panel session and attended a private dinner with G8 health ministers and senior officials from the World Health Organization and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Patient-centered research: Dr. Wernli walks the talk

At the University of Washington (UW)’s October 31 panel discussion on “Patient Involvement in Research: Past, Present, & Future,” GHRI Assistant Investigator Karen Wernli, PhD, shared insights on how to advance patient-centered research. Exemplifying the spirit of such research, she attended the event with one of the patient co-investigators on her new study comparing breast MRI to mammography, which is funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). Also in November, both of Dr. Wernli’s patient co-investigators joined her at The Purification Process—a play by Malika Lee and featuring GHRI Research Specialist Camille Campbell, about an African American woman’s journey after receiving a breast cancer diagnosis.

GHRI welcomes Dr. Chien as affiliate investigator

Andy Chien, MD, PhD, became a GHRI affiliate investigator in December, after joining Group Health Physicians in the Department of Dermatology. Dr. Chien has a background in biochemistry and cancer biology, and his research interests include studying cancer mechanisms and determinants of survival in melanoma (a kind of skin cancer), pancreatic cancer, and other cancers. He is also a faculty member at Seattle’s Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, and was previously an assistant professor of medicine at the UW.