David Arterburn, MD, MPH, is a general internist and health services researcher who focuses on finding safe, effective, and non-stigmatizing ways to treat obesity. As an international leader in obesity research, his goal is to help individuals and families make treatment decisions that align with their values while sustaining their health over the long haul.
Dr. Arterburn's research portfolio includes studies of the impact of neighborhood environments on obesity, mindfulness-based interventions for weight loss, obesity pharmacotherapy, the long-term outcomes of bariatric surgery, and implementation of shared decision making tools and processes. He recently led the PCORnet Bariatric Study, a two-year, $4.5 million study comparing the health benefits and safety associated with the main types of bariatric surgery in 41 health systems in the United States. Funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), the study’s results give patients and their health care providers the information they need to decide which type of surgery is best for them. In July 2019, PCORI awarded Dr. Arterburn an additional $2.1 million to incorporate these new results into shared decision making at Kaiser Permanente Washington and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Over the past decade, Dr. Arterburn has collaborated with Kaiser Permanente Washington's specialty leadership to implement and evaluate shared decision making with patient decision aids to support elective surgical care. The approach has shown great promise for improving the quality of health care while simultaneously lowering the costs of care in some populations.
Dr. Arterburn collaborates extensively in his research and has federally-funded projects related to obesity and bariatric surgery with investigators at University of Washington (UW), Duke University, Harvard, University of Pittsburgh, University of Michigan, Wake Forest, and the Cleveland Clinic.
Dr. Arterburn joined Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in 2006. In recognition of his contributions to science, he has been named an honorary Fellow of the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (FASMBS) and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP) and The Obesity Society (FTOS). Dr. Arterburn is past chair of the Adult Obesity Measurement Advisory Panel sponsored by the National Committee on Quality Assurance, founding chair of the Obesity Society's Health Services Research Section, and past chair of the Health Care Systems Research Network's Obesity Special Interest Group. In 2013 he co-chaired the National Institutes of Health Symposium on the Long-Term Outcomes of Bariatric Surgery. He is also an affiliate professor in the UW Department of Medicine.
Bariatric surgery; health services research; economics and risk adjustment; pharmaceutical outcomes research
Obesity prevention and control
Pharmaco-epidemiology, pharmacogenetics, pharmaceutical outcomes research
Shared decision making
Obesity prevention and control
Maciejewski ML, Livingston EH, Smith VA, Kahwati LC, Henderson WG, Arterburn DE. Health expenditures among high-risk patients after gastric bypass and matched controls. Arch Surg. 2012;147(7):633-40. PubMed
Arterburn D, Westbrook EO, Ludman EJ, Operskalski B, Linde JA, Rohde P, Jeffery RW, Simon GE. Relationship between obesity, depression, and disability in middle-aged women. Obes Res Clin Pract. 2012;6(3):e197-e206. Epub 2012 Mar 3. PubMed
Wong ES, Wang BC, Garrison LP, Alfonso-Cristancho R, Flum DR, Arterburn DE, Sullivan SD. Examining the BMI-mortality relationship using fractional polynomials. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2011 Dec 28;11(1):175. PubMed
Arterburn D, Rukstalis M, Wood C, Westbrook E, Theis K, Daar Z, Still C, Gerhard G. Identification of extreme weight gain among users of atypical antipsychotic medications. Clin Med Res. 2011;9(3-4):160. PubMed
Hemmes M, Arterburn D, Gerhard G, McCarty C, Nakasato C, Pawloski P, Rukstalis M, Schmelzer J, Yale S, Davis R. A feasibility pilot to determine the practicality of using the HMO Research Network to research the genetics of drug-induced serious adverse events. Clin Med Res. 2011;9(3-4):180-181. PubMed
Several new grants will fund research on effectiveness, safety, and equitable use of anti-obesity medications.
Study uses geographic data to track change over time.
Largest study to date helps patients weigh risks and benefits of surgery.
An evaluation with KPWHRI researchers looked at the impacts of the tax so far.