Seattle welcomes AcademyHealth

KPWHRI hosts the nation’s leading society for health services and policy research as it holds its Annual Research Meeting June 24–26. Dr. Eric B. Larson chairs

Who stands to benefit most from advances in health care? What factors influence primary care providers’ opioid prescription patterns? How can we best generate evidence needed to improve everyday health care?

Mark your calendar! These are just a few of the many topics to be addressed during the 35th annual AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting (ARM) on June 24–26 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle.

Unparalleled in its capacity to convene today’s leading thinkers in health services and policy research, ARM facilitates transfer of knowledge about the way our health system works, what it costs, and how to improve it. ARM expects 2,500 people to attend the three-day event packed with the latest evidence, methods, and conversations that move research into action.

This year’s meeting chair is Eric B. Larson, MD, MPH, vice president for research and health care innovation at Kaiser Permanente Washington and executive director of Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute. 2018’s ARM is sponsored in part by Kaiser Permanente.

“Academy Health’s annual research meeting is the largest meeting of its kind, and convenes the best and brightest,” says Dr. Larson. “ARM provides an unmatched opportunity for scientists, policymakers, health system leaders, and others to discover cutting-edge research, exchange ideas, and strengthen professional relationships.”

For more than three decades, AcademyHealth has advanced the field of health services research by serving as an objective broker of information. Like KPWHRI, AcademyHealth is committed to freely offering information and resources to the public, so ARM is a great venue for showcasing Kaiser Permanente’s research findings.

Explains Dr. Larson: “Our scientists work within a system that provides both care and coverage, which means we have a 360-degree view of people’s everyday health experience over time. We will be bringing a strong learning health care system perspective to this event.”

For example, in ARM’s Methods Council Pre-Conference Workshop on June 23, Paula Lozano, MD, MPH, co-leader of Kaiser Permanente Washington’s Learning Health System Program (KPWA LHS Progam), and colleague Amy Lee, MPH, will present a case study from its work in the region’s clinics. “Generating and Understanding Evidence Needed for Complex Interventions and Real World Applications” aims to describe the implementation and use of different designs, methodologies, and data for evaluating complex interventions and to look more closely at the ways different approaches have been used in a variety of settings.

 “We'll be sharing a case study of our behavioral health integration work here in Washington to bring a real-world illustration of key issues and considerations of complex interventions,” says KPWA LHS Program co-leader Katie Coleman, MSPH.

KPWHRI scientific staff and their collaborators will be well represented in a variety of formats at ARM. Faculty will chair four panels, with researchers presenting 15 posters and serving as speakers or discussants in ten special sessions. Among others, topics include:

• Challenges and opportunities in implementing suicide prevention efforts in settings that care for military personnel, with Gregory Simon, MD, MPH;
• The process that researchers at KPWHRI’s MacColl Center are using to create a reliable, searchable database for implementation science measures and their metadata, with Cara C. Lewis, PhD;
• Exploring women’s use of cannabis during pregnancy, with Gwen Lapham, PhD, MPH; and
• Doing less of what harms and more of what helps patients, with Diana Buist, PhD, MPH.

Get a complete guide of times, dates, and locations of KPWHRI faculty at ARM.

“AcademyHealth is a fantastic conference highlighting the best of pragmatic, impactful systems research,” Ms. Coleman adds. “I'm looking forward to connecting with many of our collaborators from across the country and Canada."

Registration is still open. Join more than 2,500 health services researchers and health policy professionals at #ARM18 to transform health care and celebrate its 35th anniversary in downtown Seattle. Discover more about ARM and review the meeting calendar.

by Dona Cutsogeorge