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. DOR’s 600-plus staff is currently working on more than 580 epidemiological and health services research projects. Read our story or watch our video of how it all began and learn even more from our interactive anniversary timeline.
Newly funded: $10.5M grant kickstarts national network to speed mental health research
A three-year $10.5 million federal grant awarded in December to help speed up mental health research will rely heavily on data from members of six Kaiser Permanente regions, including Kaiser Permanente Northern California. The Mental Health Research Network, to be…
Immunization Not Associated with Increases in ER Visits or Hospitalizations for Children with Inborn Errors of Metabolism
OAKLAND Calif. — Children with inborn errors of metabolism received vaccines on the same immunization schedule as did healthy infants, according to Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center scientists who examined the Kaiser Permanente Northern California population. In addition, immunization was…
Large Weight Gain Raises Risk for Recurrence Among Breast Cancer Survivors
Oakland, Calif. — Breast cancer survivors who experience large weight gain have an increased risk of death after diagnosis, according to research scientists at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Calif. Breast cancer survivors who experienced large weight…
Novel Technology Yields Flu Vaccine That Is Safe for Healthy Adults
OAKLAND, Calif. – Influenza vaccination using proteins derived from recommended virus strains and produced with recombinant DNA methods yields flu vaccines that are safe for healthy adults, according to Kaiser Permanente researchers. The study is published in the current issue…
Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinics May Be Important and Currently Missed Opportunities to Better Manage Cardiovascular Disease Prevention
OAKLAND, Calif. – In a study of more than 30,000 women under the age of 50 in two large United States integrated healthcare delivery systems, researchers found that women presenting with elevated blood pressures in obstetrics-gynecology clinics were observed to…
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 —…
Breaking the mold: CARDIA changes cardiovascular disease research
Until the 1980s, all that was known about the leading cause of death among Americans — cardiovascular disease — had been learned by studying middle-aged white men. But a study begun in 1985 with participants ranging in age from 18…
CARDIA: Study guardian preserves his own health
Nearly everyone involved in Kaiser Permanente’s CARDIA study has at some point heard from Steve Sidney, MD, the study’s principal investigator for the past 20 years and day-to-day project director for the five years before that. “They know who I…
