5 Questions for…Yeyi Zhu
Yeyi Zhu, PhD, wants to use big data analytics to improve women's and children's clinical care and health.
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.
Medical imaging rates continue to rise despite push to reduce their use
Despite a broad campaign among physician groups to reduce the amount of imaging in medicine, the rates of use of CT, MRI and other scans have continued to increase in both the United States and Ontario, Canada, according to a new study of more than 135 million imaging exams.
Kaiser Permanente Data Helps Create Street-level View of the Health Impacts of Air Pollution in Oakland
Google’s Street View mapping cars have been mapping more than roads lately. Outfitted with new sensors to measure traffic-related air pollution, the cars roamed the streets of Oakland to create a block-by-block map of air pollution in three neighborhoods.
Kaiser Permanente to Examine Role of Environmental Factors in Childhood Obesity and Developmental Disorders
By Janet Byron Kaiser Permanente researchers have received a major new grant from the National Institutes of Health to study how exposures to environmental chemicals during pregnancy may influence the risk of obesity and neurodevelopmental disorders in children. Twenty percent…
RPGEH: A world-class genomics project studying disease causes and healthy aging
It’s not every day Division of Research staff members are briefed by a Nobel Prize winner. Recently, 100 employees of the Division and its Research Program on Genes, Environment, and Health (RPGEH) hosted Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD, one of three scientists…
Voice of the RPGEH: Marcia Ewing and the phone/survey team
It’s simply a case of cause and effect. To recruit 500,000 Northern California Kaiser Permanente members for a research project, the Research Program for Genes, Environment and Health (RPGEH) had to gracefully and efficiently handle the masses of mail and…
RPGEH: Fast facts
Goal is database with 500,000 participants 430,000 have completed a health survey 170,000 gave saliva samples Future participants will be asked for blood samples, rather than saliva, so researchers may also collect data found in blood — not saliva —…
BPA study of Chinese factory workers finds link to reduced semen quality
In 2010, a five-year Kaiser Permanente Northern California study of more than 500 male Chinese factory workers found that those with high levels of the compound bisphenol A (BPA) in their bodies had decreased sperm concentration, decreased total sperm count,…
