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Join a Study

Group Health Center for Health Studies (CHS) often seeks Group Health members and others to serve as study participants. Those who participate are helping Group Health to evaluate innovative ways to diagnose, treat, and prevent disease. It's all part of Group Health's mission to improve health care for everybody.

The Center is currently looking for people to participate in the following research projects:

• AVIS (Acetaminophen Before Vaccines for Infants Study)
• Does It Hurt Here (Chronic Low Back Pain Study)
• Sleep and Memory Loss
• Smoking-Related Research

Research at Group Health is reviewed by oversight committees that include Group Health staff and consumers. These committees ensure that:

• All studies have scientific merit
• All studies are consistent with Group Health's mission
• Study participants are informed of the risks and benefits of research
• Study participants give their informed consent to be part of the research

Participants' privacy and rights are protected. Researchers follow strict standards to guard the privacy of medical records and study information.

Participation is strictly voluntary. When people decide not to participate in a study, it doesn't affect their care at Group Health in any way.

If you qualify for one of the studies that's currently recruiting participants, please consider taking part. And, if you know others who might be interested, please pass the word.

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AVIS ( Acetaminophen Before Vaccines for Infants Study)

The purpose of this study is to find out whether giving acetaminophen (the medicine in Tylenol ^®) before babies receive their 2, 4 and 6 month vaccinations is helpful in preventing fever or other vaccine-related symptoms. We will also try to learn whether use of acetaminophen reduces the infant’s use of medical services, parents’ time lost from work, and sleep lost by parents and infants within a day of vaccination.

Who can participate? Healthy babies more than 6 weeks but less than 10 months of age who will be seen at a Group Health clinic and receive 2 or more vaccinations at a clinic visit are eligible for the study.

What is involved? If you and your baby take part in this study, we will send you a bottle of liquid medication. This bottle will contain either acetaminophen or a placebo (a liquid that doesn’t have any medicine in it). We will ask you to give your baby one dose at a regularly scheduled vaccine appointment, and up to four more doses within 24 hours afterward.

We will ask you to fill out a study diary on the day of vaccination and the next day. You will record the times you gave study medication, and also answer a few questions about whether your baby was fussy and how much your baby slept the night after receiving vaccines. You will receive a free thermometer. We will ask you to take your baby’s rectal temperature up to 5 times (if your baby is awake) and record that information. You will mail the study diary back to us, and we will call you if we have any questions about it.

Lisa Jackson, MD, MPH, Senior Investigator at the Group Health Center for Health Studies, is the lead investigator for the study.

If you might be interested in participating and would like more information about the AVIS, call us at 206-287-2058 or toll-free at: 1-800-754-4951.

To view the study forms see the AVIS study on our Study Information and Forms page.

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Sleep and Memory Loss

Caring for someone with memory loss and sleep problems? 
Group Health Center for Health Studies and the University of Washington School of Nursing are evaluating treatments that may help with nighttime sleep and behavior problems in people with a diagnosis of dementia or severe memory loss.

Participants are randomly assigned to one of four treatment programs for two months, with three or six visits from a therapist. Both the person with memory loss and their caregiver are interviewed three times for about one hour. All study visits are done in the home.

To learn more, call Amy at 206-616-5550 or toll free 1-866-292-4464.

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If you are currently enrolled in a CHS study and are looking for study forms, please see our Study Information and Forms page.

If you would like to know where CHS' research clinic is located, please see our Driving Directions to CHS Clinic page.