Download BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH NAME: Elliott, Thomas Edward eRA

OMB No. 0925-0001/0002 (Rev. 08/12 Approved Through 8/31/2015)
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
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NAME: Elliott, Thomas Edward
eRA COMMONS USER NAME (credential, e.g., agency login): TEELLIOTT
POSITION TITLE: Senior Research Fellow, HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research, Adjunct
Professor, University of Minnesota Medical School
EDUCATION/TRAINING
University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
DEGREE
(if
applicable)
BA
Completion
Date
MM/YYYY
1966
Chemistry and Zoology
University of Kansas, Kansas City, KS
MD
1970
Medicine
University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
Residency
1971
Internal Medicine
Residency
1973
Anesthesiology
Residency
Fellowship
1977
Internal Medicine,
Medical Oncology &
Hematology
INSTITUTION AND LOCATION
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
A.
FIELD OF STUDY
Personal Statement
I joined HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research (HPIER) January 2014 as a Senior Research
Fellow. Previously I have had over 36 years of research experience, clinical practice, and research
administration at Duluth Clinic, Essentia Health, and Essentia Institute of Rural Health (a research center
sponsored by Essentia Health). My clinical training and expertise includes medical oncology, hematology, pain
medicine - anesthesiology, and hospice and palliative medicine. From 1978 to 2000, I participated as an
investigator in the NCI-funded Duluth Clinic CCOP. In 1990 I became Chief of Education and Research for the
Duluth Clinic and conducted numerous NCI and other federal agencies-sponsored research projects over the
subsequent 20 years. In 2010, I became the inaugural Executive Director of Essentia Institute for Rural Health,
a new center sponsored by Essentia Health for investigator-initiated research focused on rural populations.
During those four years I focused mainly on building a new research institute (hiring investigators, leading an
institute with 12 full time investigators and 80 support staff), which limited time for my investigator-initiated
research. Now I have left these past positions and will focus entirely on investigator-initiated research at the
Institute. This project is very congruent with my past research interests and expertise, which include improving
cancer care delivered by primary care providers in rural settings.
As PI of this proposed project I am in a unique position to be quite effective. I have many years of experience
as a medical oncologist, investigator, and physician-leader at Essentia Health, the performance site for this
project. Now employed at the Institute I have joined a team of national leaders and investigators in effective
point-of-care EHR-linked clinical decision support systems in primary care settings. In addition, I have served
on numerous NCI study sections and special emphasis panels over the last 20 years and published over 150
scholarly works in peer-reviewed publications. My experience and previous research projects provide me with
the required expertise to lead this proposed project that will implement a sophisticated, web-based clinical
decision support system for primary care providers at the point of care focusing on primary and secondary
cancer prevention in a large mostly rural population. We have assembled an outstanding team that includes
the methodological, statistical, health behavior change, health economics, analytical, programming, and
scientific expertise of the HPIER investigators with the experienced, senior investigators at Essentia
Health/Essentia Institute of Rural Health, the performance site.
Among several research interests as shown in this biographical sketch, my leading research interest is to
increase primary care providers’ capacity to improve the care of cancer patients in their communities, but most
importantly to improve primary and secondary cancer prevention. We know that nearly two-thirds of cancers
result from unhealthy life styles and behaviors. However, most of these factors are modifiable and are best
conducted and promoted by primary care providers, who encounter most Americans in their clinics and
communities regularly. Having conducted research that promotes primary care in cancer prevention and
collaboration in cancer treatment for over 30 years, I am ideally suited to lead this innovative study. Four
publications that are relevant to this proposal include:
1. Elliott TE, Bianco JA. A primary care primer for cancer prevention in rural populations. Disease-a-month:
DM. 2012;58(11):651-60. Epub 2012/10/16. doi: 10.1016/j.disamonth.2012.08.003. PubMed PMID:
23062681
2. Elliott TE, Elliott BA, Regal RR, Renier CM, Haller IV, Crouse BJ, Witrak MT, Jensen PB. Improving rural
cancer patients’ outcomes: a group-randomized trial. Journal of Rural Health 2004; 20(1): 26-35.
3. Elliott TE, Elliott BA, Regal RR, Renier CM, Haller IV, Crouse BJ, Witrak MT, Jensen PB. Lake Superior
Rural Cancer Care Project Part III: Provider Practice. Cancer Practice 2002; 10(2): 75-84.
4. Elliott TE, Elliott BA, Renier CM, et al. Rural-urban differences in cancer care. Results from the Lake
Superior Rural Cancer Care Project. Minn Med. 2004;25:44-50.
B.
Positions and Honors
Positions and Employment
1977-1979
Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth, MN
1979-1987
Adjunct Associate Professor, University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth, MN
1987-Present Adjunct Professor, University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth, MN
1977-2010
Medical Oncologist/Hematologist, Duluth Clinic, Duluth, MN
1978-1990
Medical Director, Hospice Duluth, St. Luke’s Hospital, Duluth, MN
1990-2006
Medical Director, St. Mary’s Hospice, SMDC Health System, Duluth, MN
1990-2010
Chief of Research and Education, SMDC Health System, Duluth, MN
2000-2010
Pain Medicine physician, Essentia Health – East Region, Duluth, MN
2000-2010
Medical Director, Pain Management Center, Essentia Health – East Region, Duluth, MN
2010-2013
Executive Director, Essentia Institute of Rural Health, Duluth, MN
2014-Present Senior Research Fellow, HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research, Minneapolis, MN
Honors and Awards
1969-Present Alpha Omega Alpha, University of Kansas Medical School
1978-Present Membership in American Society of Clinical Oncology, American College of Physicians
1979, 1980, 1984, 1986, 1990 Teacher of the Year, University of Minnesota Medical School Duluth
1989-Present Membership in American Pain Society, American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine,
International Association for the Study of Pain, American Association for Cancer Education,
American Academy of Pain Medicine, International Society for Quality of Life Research
1991-Present Fellow, American College of Physicians
1992-Present Who’s Who in America
1993
AHPR, Rural Health Research Centers Peer Review Panel, member
1995-1998
NCI Subcommittee G Study Section, regular member
1998-2000
NCI Subcommittee G Study Section, chair
1998-2010
Best Doctors in America
1998-Present Journal of Cancer Education, Editorial Board
2000-Present International Directory of Distinguished Leadership
2001
NCI Subcommittee G Study Section, ad hoc member
2003
NCI Subcommittee F Study Section, ad hoc member
2005-Present Who’s Who in American Education
2005-Present Who’s Who in Medicine and Healthcare
2005
NCI Special Emphasis Panel/IRG ZCA1 RTRB-N, member
2006-2007
NCI Risk, Prevention and Health Behavior Study Section, member
2012
“100 influential healthcare leaders in Minnesota”
2015
NIH Special Emphasis Panel, ZRG1 HDM-X, member
C.
Contribution to Science
1. Rural Cancer Care: As an oncologist and cancer researcher, improving rural cancer care ranging from
prevention and screening to diagnosis and treatment, and to survivorship and end-of-life care has been my
primary research focus. From 1978 to 2000, I participated as an investigator in the NCI-funded Duluth Clinic
Community Clinical Oncology Program that offered hundreds of clinical trials and resulted in hundreds of
publications over 22 years. I also served as PI of Lake Superior Rural Cancer Care Project (R01CA56334),
a cluster-randomized trial conducted in 18 communities in rural Minnesota, Wisconsin & Michigan that tested
interventions to improve primary care providers’ knowledge, competencies and practice behaviors and their
cancer patients’ outcomes. This project resulted in 18 publications. Four publications in this area include:
1. Elliott TE, Elliott BA, Regal RR, Renier CM, Haller IV, Crouse BJ, Witrak MT, Jensen PB. Improving rural
cancer patients’ outcomes: a group-randomized trial. Journal of Rural Health 2004; 20(1): 26-35.
2. Elliott TE, Elliott BA, Regal RR, Renier CM, Haller IV, Crouse BJ, Witrak MT, Jensen PB. Lake Superior
Rural Cancer Care Project Part III: Provider Practice. Cancer Practice 2002; 10(2): 75-84.
3. Elliott TE, Elliott BA, Regal RR, Renier CM, Crouse BJ, Gangeness DE, Witrak MT, Jensen PB. Lake
Superior Rural Cancer Project Part II: provider knowledge. Cancer Practice 2001;9(1):37-46.
4. Elliott TE, Bianco JA. A primary care primer for cancer prevention in rural populations. Disease-a-month:
DM. 2012;58(11):651-60. Epub 2012/10/16. doi: 10.1016/j.disamonth.2012.08.003. PubMed PMID:
23062681.
2. Cancer Pain Management: As a pain medicine/anesthesiologist-oncologist, my clinical and research
interests intersect at improving pain associated with cancer and cancer therapies. I served as the PI of
Minnesota Cancer Pain Project (R25CA57803), a cluster-randomized trial conducted in six Minnesota cities
that tested interventions to improve providers’ knowledge, competencies and practice behaviors and their
cancer patients’ pain outcomes. This project resulted in 14 publications. Four publications in this area include:
5. Elliott BA, Johnson KM, Elliott TE, Day JJ. Enhancing cancer pain control among American Indians
(ECPCAI): a study of the Ojibwe of Minnesota. J Cancer Educ 1999;14:28-33.
6. Elliott TE, Murray DM, Oken MM, Johnson KM, Braun BL, Elliott BA, Post-White J. Improving cancer
pain management in communities: main results from a randomized controlled trial - the Minnesota
Cancer Pain Project. J Pain Symptom Manage 1997; 13:191-203.
7. Elliott TE, Murray DM, Elliott BA, Braun BL, Oken MM, Johnson KM, Post-White J, Lichtblau L. Physician
knowledge and attitudes about cancer pain management: A survey from the Minnesota Cancer Pain
Project. J Pain Symptom Manage 1995;10:494-504.
8. Elliott TE, Murray DM, Oken MM, Johnson KM, Elliott BA, Post-White J. The Minnesota Cancer Pain
Project: design, methods, and education strategies. J Cancer Educ 1995;10:102-112.
3. Chronic Non-cancer Pain Management: I also have experience researching chronic non-cancer pain
management. In particular I am interested in safe and appropriate use of opioids in pain management and
improved quality of life for patients in hospice and palliative care medicine as well in primary care setting.
Because primary care providers manage most chronic non-cancer pain patients and prescribe the majority of
opioids in the U.S. and in view of the current overuse and misuse of opioids across the country, I continue to
have special research interest. Now I will be leading a recently funded study to explore the use of opioids
during pregnancy. Four publications in this area include:
9. Raebel MA, Newcomer SR, Reifler LM, Boudreau D, Elliott TE, DeBar L, Ahmed A, Pawloski PA, Fisher
D, Donahoo WT, Bayliss EA. Chronic use of opioid medications before and after bariatric surgery.
JAMA.2013;310(13):1369-1376. (October)
10. Elliott TE, Fox OM, Renier CM, Palcher JA. Opioid rotation to methadone in hospice patients. J
Palliative Med. 2008;11 :379.
11. Harris JM, Elliott TE, Davis BE, et al. Educating generalist physicians about chronic pain: live experts
and online education can provide durable benefits. Pain Medicine 2008;9:555-563.
12. Elliott TE, Harris JM, Chabal C, et al. Improving chronic pain management skills of primary care
physicians: A randomized trial. Pain Medicine. 2007;8:89-9.
4. Implementation and Use of Patient-Reported Outcomes in Clinical Practice: I have been studying the
implementation and use of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) for over 20 years, initially in cancer patients,
then patients at end-of-life and in hospice and palliative care, and now patients in primary care settings. These
studies of PROs resulted in over 30 peer-reviewed publications. My first use of PROs was in the Lake Superior
Rural Cancer Care Project (R01CA56334), in which we used the FLIC-Health Related Quality of Life survey.
Subsequently various PROs were used in several studies of hospice and palliative care patients resulting in
many publications. In studies of both cancer and non-cancer pain patients, many PROs were used, such as
BPI, PHQ-9, SF-36 and SF-12, and various functional scales. Now I am focusing on implementing and use of
PROs in primary care settings. Four publications in this area include:
13. Snyder C, Aaronson N, Choucair A, Elliott TE, Greenhalgh J, Halyard M, Hess R, Miller D, Reeve B,
Santana M. Implementing patient-reported outcomes assessment in clinical practice: a review of the
options and considerations. Quality of Life Research November 3, 2011, DOI 10.1007/s11136-011-0054-x
14. Elliott BA, Renier CM, Haller IV, Elliott TE. Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with cancer
and other concurrent illnesses. Quality of Life Research 2004; 13(2): 457-462.
15. Elliott TE, Renier, Palcher JA. The prognostic value of measuring health-related quality of life in hospice
patients. J Palliative Med. 2007;10:696-704.
16. Elliott TE, Renier CM, Palcher JA. Chronic pain, depression, and quality of life: correlations and predictive
value of the SF-36. Pain Medicine. 2003;4:331-9.
D.
Research Support
Active Research Support
HealthPartners Institute
Elliott (PI)
03/01/2015 – 02/29/2016
Opioid Prescribing During Pregnancy: An Exploratory, Discovery Study
This proposed research will discover past and current practices of opioid use (prescribing or dispensing) during
pregnancy among HealthPartners member-patients, address significant clinical questions, and provide
direction for future investigations and interventions to improve the safety of opioid prescribing, as well as
improve maternal and newborn outcomes. Results from this proposed study could be used as preliminary data
for future, externally funded research projects, especially if other populations beyond HealthPartners members
are included to increase generalizability and impact
Role: Principal Investigator
Completed Research
HealthPartners Health Plan
Elliott (PI)
04/01/13 – 06/30/14
Evaluation of Essentia Health’s Accountable Care Model: HealthPartners Insured Essentia Health Employees
(EH-HP ACO Study)
The objective is to determine the predictive performance of the Essentia Health Patient Stratification Model
(PSM) tool to identify high-risk patients in real time using EHR data in order to create alerts for providers. The
goal of the tool is to improve patients’ experience and outcomes while also lowering costs in accordance with
the triple aim.
Role: Principal Investigator
Pfizer, Inc.
Elliott (PI)
06/01/13 – 11/30/14
Performance of 3 Opioid Risk Stratification Tools in Predicting Patient Behaviors and Outcomes: An
Exploratory Study (ORST Study)
The study objective is to determine whether pre-existing EHR data can be used retrospectively using Natural
Language Processing tools to populate data elements of 3 commonly used opioid risk stratification tools and
determine the sensitivity, specificity and predictive performance of the 3 tools.
Role: Principal Investigator
AHRQ/R01 HS019912
Daley (PI)
10/01/10 – 09/30/13
Scalable PArtnering Network for CER: Across Lifespan, Conditions and Settings (SPAN)
The objective is to develop a distributed research network that is interoperable across a range of health care
systems and sites, incorporating large and diverse patient populations. The network infrastructure will have
the capability to conduct large comparative effectiveness research (CER) studies using data collected on
patient-reported outcomes collected at the point of care and real-time data collection.
Role: Co-Principal Investigator/Site PI