Kaiser Permanente
Division of Research Spotlight
The Kaiser Permanente Division of Research conducts, publishes, and disseminates epidemiologic and health services research to improve the health and medical care of Kaiser Permanente members and society at large. We seek to understand the determinants of illness and well-being, and to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of health care. Currently, DOR’s 550-plus staff is working on more than 350 epidemiological and health services research projects.
“Our online tool helps emergency room doctors to quickly and easily identify which patients with pulmonary embolism can be safely treated at home, thus avoiding costly and inconvenient hospitalization,” said David R. Vinson, MD, lead author of a new study in Annals of Internal Medicine.
The math major-turned diabetes researcher now also leads several training programs, helping to form a new generation of researchers.
The journal Menopause selected three DOR studies for its 25th commemorative issue highlighting the most important studies in the journal's history.
Kaiser Permanente researchers and colleagues find that non-alcoholic fatty liver disease was less likely to occur in mothers who breastfed for 6 months or more.
The Kaiser Permanente Division of Research has received a T32 grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) to train young scientists in translating research into practice for people with type 2 diabetes and prediabetes.
"If other health care systems and providers had adopted Kaiser Permanente’s approach and achieved the same rate of decline, I estimated in this latest National Forum report that 40,000 heart disease and stroke deaths in this age group would have been prevented in 2015 alone."
When Sandra Domingue attends her regular fitness class at the Bayview Hunter’s Point YMCA in San Francisco, she’s not thinking about how her time at the gym, which includes both socializing and exercise, could help her live longer.
Kaiser Permanente Division of Research scientists recently presented research on influenza vaccines, colorectal screening outcomes in HIV-infected individuals, a genetic basis for fever after measles-containing vaccines, and more at ID Week, a leading conference on infectious diseases.
People who were severely obese and had diabetes had 40 percent fewer heart attacks and strokes — and 67 percent fewer deaths — within 5 years after bariatric weight-loss surgery.
Kaiser Permanente collaborated with CDC researchers to study the effectiveness of flu vaccinations in preventing influenza-associated hospitalizations during pregnancy.
