ResearchOur PeopleElizabeth Liles

Elizabeth Liles, MD, MCR

Meet Elizabeth Liles

Beth Liles knows the challenges of being a primary care physician, but as a researcher, she also knows she can help to improve primary care for patients and for doctors. Her research focuses on developing better ways to screen patients for breast and colon cancers.

Elizabeth (Beth) Liles, MD, MCR, is a Kaiser Permanente Northwest primary care doctor, board certified in internal medicine, who has practiced for more than 15 years. She joined CHR in 2006 as a research fellow, became a clinical investigator in 2009, and an investigator in 2015.

Dr. Liles’ research focuses on shared decision-making, hereditary cancer disorders, vaccine safety, cancer screening, and other topics relevant to the practice of primary care medicine.  She is a co-investigator on the CHARM study, which identifies individuals at increased risk for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) syndrome and Lynch syndrome, and provides them genetic testing. In this study, she led the development of a novel low-literacy decision aid to help adults choose whether to receive additional (secondary) information about genomic sequencing; her group tested the efficacy of the decision aid in a randomized trial. She is also working with collaborators at Denver Health System to design and implement registries for care coordination of adults with hereditary cancer syndromes.

Dr. Liles previously collaborated on the FIBER study, analyzing a colorectal cancer (CRC) mailed fecal test screening program within the KPNW health plan. She was a principal investigator on the MY FIT Study, which compared two fecal immunochemical test (FIT) protocols for detecting colorectal cancer and advanced adenomas. She has worked directly with private start-up companies to evaluate novel methods for detecting early-stage colorectal cancer. Dr. Liles is a co-investigator in the Vaccine Safety Datalink, a collaborative endeavor among several large health plans that uses big data to evaluate the safety of vaccines currently in use. She also has been a site principal investigator for CLOVER, a randomized trial evaluating the effectiveness of a vaccine against Clostridioides difficile.

Since 2009, Dr. Liles has also served as a senior methodologist with the Kaiser Permanente National Guideline Program, working to create cancer screening, osteoporosis, and diabetes guidelines for physicians in different Kaiser Permanente regions. This work involves reviewing the evidence for clinical practices and collaborating with large groups of stakeholders across Kaiser Permanente to reach decisions about the practices to emphasize.

Dr. Liles earned her medical degree at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada, and a master of clinical research degree at Oregon Health & Science University.

Selected Publications

  • Liles EG, Leo MC, Freed AS, Porter KM, Zepp JM, Kauffman TL, Keast E, McMullen CK, Gruß I, Biesecker BB, Muessig KR, Eubanks DJ, Amendola LM, Dorschner MO, Rolf, BA, Jarvik GP, Goddard KAB, Wilfond BS. ORCA, a values-based decision aid for selecting additional findings from genomic sequencing in adults: Efficacy results from a randomized trial.Genetics in Medicine. 2022, In press.
  • Irving SA, Groom HC, Dandamudi P, Daley MF, Donahue JG, Gee J, Hechter R, Jackson LA, Klein NP, Liles E, Myers TR, Stokley S. A decade of data: Adolescent vaccination in the Vaccine Safety Datalink, 2007 through 2016.Vaccine 2022; 40(9): 1246-1252. PMID: 35125221; PMCID: PMC8813203.
  • Xu S, Huang R, Sy LS, Glenn SC, Ryan DS, Morrissette K, Shay DK, Vazquez-Benitez G, Glanz JM, Klein NP, McClure D, Liles EG, Weintraub ES, Tseng HF, Qian L. COVID-19 Vaccination and Non-COVID-19 Mortality Risk - Seven Integrated Health Care Organizations, United States, December 14, 2020-July 31, 2021.MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2021 Oct 29;70(43):1520-1524. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm7043e2. PMID: 34710075; PMCID: PMC8553028 
  • Liles E, Irving SA, Dandamudi P, Belongia EA, Daley MF, DeStefano F, Jackson LA, Jacobsen SJ, Kharbanda E, Klein NP, Weintraub E, Naleway AL. Incidence of pediatric inflammatory bowel disease within the Vaccine Safety Datalink network and evaluation of association with rotavirus vaccination.Vaccine. 2021 Jun 16;39(27):3614-3620. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.05.032. Epub 2021 May 26. PMID: 34052066.
  • Freed AS, Gruß I, McMullen CK, Leo MC, Kauffman TL, Porter KM, Muessig KR, Eubanks D, Goddard KAB, Wilfond BS, Liles EG. A decision aid for additional findings in genomic sequencing: Development and pilot testing.Patient Educ Couns. 2021 May;104(5):960-968. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2020.10.038. Epub 2020 Nov 6. PMID: 33191058; PMCID: PMC8099937. 
  • Weinmann S, Irving SA, Koppolu P, Naleway AL, Belongia EA, Hambidge SJ, Jackson ML, Klein NP, Lewin B, Liles E, Marin M, Smith N, Weintraub E, Chun C. Incidence of herpes zoster among varicella-vaccinated children, by number of vaccine doses and simultaneous administration of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine.Vaccine. 2020 Aug 18;38(37):5880-5884. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.05.006. Epub 2020 May 20. PMID: 32444193.
  • Weinmann S, Naleway AL, Koppolu P, Baxter R, Belongia EA, Hambidge SJ, Irving SA, Jackson ML, Klein NP, Lewin B, Liles E, Marin M, Smith N, Weintraub E, Chun C. Incidence of Herpes Zoster Among Children: 2003-2014.Pediatrics. 2019 Jul;144(1):e20182917. doi: 10.1542/peds.2018-2917. Epub 2019 Jun 10. PMID: 31182552; PMCID: PMC7748320.
  • Smith DH, O'Keeffe Rosetti M, Mosen DM, Rosales AG, Keast E, Perrin N, Feldstein AC, Levin TR, Liles EG. Balancing adherence and expense: The cost-effectiveness of two-sample vs one-sample fecal immunochemical test.Popul Health Manag 2019 Feb;22(1):83-89. PMCID: PMC6386068
  • Liles EG, Perrin N, Rosales AG, Smith DH, Feldstein AC, Mosen DM, Levin TR. Performance of a quantitative fecal immunochemical test for detecting advanced colorectal neoplasia: A prospective cohort study.BMC Cancer 2018 May 2;18(1):509. PMCID: PMC5932873
  • Liles EG, Coronado D, Perrin N, Howell Harte A, Nungesser R, Quigley N, Potter NT, Weiss G, Koenig T, deVos T. Uptake of a colorectal cancer screening blood test is higher than of a fecal test offered in clinic: A randomized trial.Cancer Res Treatment Comm. 2017; 10:27-31.
  • Hornbrook MC, Goshen R, Choman E, O'Keeffe-Rosetti M, Kinar Y, Liles EG, Rust KC. Early Colorectal Cancer Detected by Machine Learning Model Using Gender, Age, and Complete Blood Count Data. Dig Dis Sci. 2017 Oct;62(10): 2719-2727. doi: 10.1007/s10620-017-4722-8. Epub 2017 Aug 23. Erratum in: Dig Dis Sci. 2017 Nov 27. PubMed PMID: 28836087.

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