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Volume 15, Issue 4
Fall 2003

• Feature Articles
  CHS 20th Anniversary
  Profile: S. Taplin, MD, MPH
• Center News
• Recent Publications
• Research Newsletter Page

Feature Article

Lecture marks the Center’s 20th anniversary

Group Health Center for Health Studies (CHS) will combine the celebration of its 20^th anniversary with its annual "Hilde and Bill Birnbaum Endowed Lecture on Benefiting Patients Through Health Research."

The event, co-sponsored by the Group Health Community Foundation, will be held Thursday, November 13, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Seattle Sheraton Hotel & Towers.

CHS Director Eric B. Larson, MD, MPH, will deliver the luncheon address, describing how the Center’s development—along with the evolution of Group Health’s integrated group practice—has positioned the organization’s researchers to address some of the most perplexing problems facing American health care.

Larson, who left his post as medical director of the University of Washington (UW) Medical Center one year ago to take the helm at CHS, has said repeatedly that he believes Group Health is "one of the best environments in the country for studying the kind of systematic changes that the nation’s health care system needs." Referring to recommendations outlined in the Institute of Medicine’s 2002 landmark report, Crossing the Quality Chasm, Larson will describe how CHS research can help set the stage for making the report’s far-reaching recommendations a reality.

Larson is a general internist and research scientist with expertise in quality improvement, patient safety, and risk reduction. Larson established an Alzheimer’s Disease Patient Registry at Group Health in 1987 as part of an ongoing UW/CHS research program into dementia and aging. Today that program also involves projects related to promoting successful aging and high functioning in seniors.

Larson is also chair-elect of the Board of Regents of the American College of Physicians, the nation’s largest medical specialty society, with some 115,000 members.

The annual Birnbaum Endowed Lecture was established in 2000 to honor Group Health founders Hilde and Bill Birnbuam’s long-term commitment to Group Health, their active participation in its founding, and their passion for using research to improve patient care.

The event will also feature presentation of the annual Birnbaum Award, an honor that goes to the Group Health work team that has made extraordinary contributions in the previous year to successful research at Group Health. Each year, CHS staff members nominate teams for this award. Winners are selected by CHS scientific investigators.

For more information about the lecture and luncheon, call 206-287-2932 or send e-mail to evans.r@ghc.org.

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