Jessica Chubak, PhD, is an epidemiologist who works to improve cancer diagnosis, treatment, control, and survivorship. She contributes to several national collaborations that are finding practical, efficient, effective ways to screen for cancer, especially colorectal cancer. She also studies how common medications affect cancer risk and recurrence. Intrigued by how pets positively affect health, Dr. Chubak is studying animal-assisted activities in clinics and hospitals where children get treated for cancer. Dr. Chubak’s methodological research focuses on the use of administrative and electronic health record data in epidemiologic and health services studies.
Dr. Chubak joined KPWHRI in 2007, bringing expertise in epidemiologic methods, pharmacoepidemiology, and cancer. Awarded a Fulbright graduate student grant, Dr. Chubak pursued her master's degree in bioethics and health law in New Zealand before completing her PhD in Epidemiology at the University of Washington (UW). Dr. Chubak is an affiliate associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the UW School of Public Health, where she enjoys guest-lecturing and getting to work with students.
Epidemiology; colorectal cancer; medication use; survivorship; recurrence; secondary prevention; quality of life; automated data collection; screening; animal-assisted activities; survivorship
Screening
Cancer risk and use of common medications
Meenan RT, Anderson ML, Chubak J, Vernon SW, Fuller S, Wang CY, Green BB. An economic evaluation of colorectal cancer screening in primary care practice. Am J Prev Med. 2015;48(6):714-21. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2014.12.016. PubMed
Chubak J, Hubbard RA, Johnson E, Kamineni A, Rutter CM. Assessing the effectiveness of a screening test for cancer in the presence of another screening modality in nonrandomized studies J Med Screen. 2015 Jun;22(2):69-75. doi: 10.1177/0969141314562036. Epub 2014 Dec 9.
Adams KF, Johnson EA, Chubak J, Kamineni A, Doubeni CA, Buist DS, Williams AE, Weinmann S, Doria-Rose VP, Rutter CM. Development of an algorithm to classify colonoscopy indication from coded health care data. EGEMS. (Wash DC). 2015 May 18;3(1):1171. doi: 10.13063/2327-9214.1171. eCollection 2015.
Chubak J, Onega T, Zhu W, Buist DS, Hubbard RA. An electronic health record-based algorithm to ascertain the date of second breast cancer events. Med Care. 2017 Dec;55(12):e81-e87. doi: 10.1097/MLR.0000000000000352. PubMed
Ludman EJ, McCorkle R, Bowles EA, Rutter CM, Chubak J, Tuzzio L, Jones S, Reid RJ, Penfold R, Wagner EH. Do depressed newly diagnosed cancer patients differentially benefit from nurse navigation? Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2015 Feb 28. pii: S0163-8343(15)00038-9. doi: 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2015.02.008 [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Hubbard RA, Chubak J, Rutter CM. Estimating screening test utilization using electronic health records data. eGEMS. 2014 2(1). Article 14. doi: 10.13063/2327-9214.1109.
Green BB, Anderson ML, Wang CY, Vernon SW, Chubak J, Meenan RT, Fuller S. Results of nurse navigator follow-up after positive colorectal cancer screening test: a randomized trial. J Am Board Fam Med. 2014 Nov-Dec;27(6):789-95. doi: 10.3122/jabfm.2014.06.140125. PubMed
Understanding emergency department use among adolescent and young adult cancer survivors can help address care gaps.
How KPWHRI is contributing to better cancer screening and better outcomes for patients.
Top pediatric oncology hospitals reported lasting changes to programs involving visits with animals.