Recognition February 2022


Lisa Jackson selected as Researcher of the Year

When the Puget Sound Business Journal honored health care leaders of 2021, they chose Lisa Jackson, MD, MPH, as Researcher of the Year. Jackson is a senior investigator at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI) and a Washington Permanente Medical Group physician. Among other work in vaccines and infectious diseases, she leads trials on COVID-19 vaccines including the first trial of an mRNA vaccine against the disease. 

KPWHRI welcomes biostatistician Hyun 

Noorie Hyun, PhD, joined KPWHRI as an assistant investigator in biostatistics, arriving from an assistant professor position at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Hyun brings experience in collaborative research using electronic record data on cervical cancer screening. She has expertise in survival analysis, survey data, and complex longitudinal studies. At KPWHRI, she is collaborating on projects in addiction disorder, pragmatic clinical trials, cervical cancer screening, and drug and vaccine safety and effectiveness. Welcome, Noorie Hyun!​​​​​​​ 

Rosenberg selected for President's Council 

In 2022, Dori Rosenberg, PhD, MPH, associate investigator at KPWHRI, will serve on the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, & Nutrition Science Board. In this position, Rosenberg will inform the development of the Physical Activity Guidelines Midcourse Report on older adults, based on her expertise in studying how people of all ages and abilities can engage in physical activity.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ 

Yeung invited to speak to state legislature

 In January, Kai Yeung, PharmD, PhD, KPWHRI assistant investigator, was invited to give testimony to the Oregon State Legislature based on his expertise in making prescription drugs more affordable. During an information meeting of the Senate Interim Committee on Health Care, Yeung offered a framework for thinking about drug affordability policies.

Simon speaks at HCSRN

KPWHRI Senior Investigator Greg Simon, MD, MPH, gave a January webinar for the Health Care Systems Research Network (HCSRN). The talk focused on identifying potential pitfalls in using Virtual Data Warehouse data to assess mental health impacts of COVID-19. The webinar was part of the HCSRN Scientific Data Resources Forum on work in informatics, analytics, data development, and scientific collaboration. 

KPWHRI team presents on HPV home kits

Results from a KPWHRI project on mailed HPV kits for home testing for cervical cancer risk were presented in November 2021 at the 34th International Papillomavirus Conference, a virtual event. Diana Buist, PhD, MPH, KPWHRI senior investigator, and Rachel Winer, PhD, MPH, affiliate investigator, led the work. Other KPWHRI coauthors on the presentation — titled “Does mailing unsolicited HPV self-sampling kits to women overdue for cervical cancer screening impact uptake of other preventive health services?” — were biostatistician Melissa Anderson, MS, and programmer analyst Hongyuan Gao, MS.