skip navigation

Group Health Department of Preventive Care (DPC)

Study Examples | Key Publications | Intro

The Group Health Department of Preventive Care (DPC) is a subspecialty group within Group Health’s medical staff that works collaboratively with Group Health Center for Health Studies (CHS), the medical staff, and the Strategic Services and Quality team to design, deliver, promote, and evaluate preventive care and health promotion services. It aims to improve the health and quality of life of Group Health members and the general community by providing services to detect asymptomatic but clinically important disease and promote health through lifestyle and behavior change. Its main research mission is to conduct "translational research"—that is, discovering ways of implementing scientifically proven methods of prevention in a real-world health care setting.

DPC assists Group Health in the development, improvement, and assessment of both primary and secondary prevention services. Examples of primary prevention services, which reduce risk factors before diseases start, include immunization and smoking cessation. Secondary prevention services identify the early onset of disease leading to a reduction of death and disability. One prime example DPC helped to foster at Group Health is the organization’s comprehensive Breast Cancer Screening Program, established in 1985.

Seeking to improve the health outcomes of people who belong to Group Health and the broader community, DPC uses population-based, evidence-based approaches to disease prevention. Prevention and health promotion have been core values of Group Health since its inception; DPC is charged with developing and sustaining programs and activities to attain these goals.

As an integral part of the medical staff at Group Health, DPC provides an important connection between population-based prevention strategies and the health plan’s delivery system, so that the effects of these strategies are translated to individuals and results are maximized. Delivery system priorities in prevention are addressed through internal Group Health mechanisms, including the Committee on Prevention, which DPC sponsors.

Together with the MacColl Institute, DPC is providing scientific leadership for the Transforming Patient-Centered Care (TPC) initiative, which will integrate existing technology infrastructure and systems to deliver a patient-centered model of care delivery for Group Health members, employers, and providers. "When fully implemented, these changes will revolutionize the way we practice medicine," says DPC’s medical director, David C. Grossman, MD, MPH. "We expect to involve many CHS researchers in evaluating this initiative."

Study Examples | Key Publications | Intro

Top