Press Releases: National

October 12, 2009
Updated February 10, 2010

Contact: Emily Schwartz, 415 274 7926 or Maureen McInaney, 510 710 7322

National Institutes of Health Awards More Than $54 Million to Kaiser Permanente to Conduct Health Research

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds will support research in numerous health areas, from genotyping 100,000 members’ DNA samples to conducting comparative effectiveness research on colon cancer treatments

OAKLAND, Calif. — As part of the $5 billion in grants announced by President Obama, the National Institutes of Health has granted Kaiser Permanente more than $54 million over two years through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to conduct health research on a multitude of critical public and clinical health areas. The bulk of this research will utilize and leverage Kaiser Permanente’s electronic health records, the world’s largest civilian electronic health record database.

"Kaiser Permanente is proud to be part of what President Obama called the ‘single largest boost to biomedical research in history.’ It’s our mission to find answers to medicine’s complex questions so that everyone can have better care," said Raymond J. Baxter, PhD, senior vice president, Kaiser Permanente Community Benefit, Research and Health Policy. "Health research is foundational to reforming the way we deliver care. Such evidence-based innovation is core to Kaiser Permanente’s commitment to improving care delivery and enhancing quality outcomes."

The NIH has awarded 22 grants to Kaiser Permanente researchers in its various regional centers, including a $25 million Grand Opportunities grant to conduct genotyping on 100,000 Kaiser Permanente members participating in the research program on Genes, Environment and Health, the largest population-based bio-bank in the United States. The RPGEH is based at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Calif.

A separate NIH GO grant of nearly $4 million was awarded to the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore., to study personalized medicine and genomic tests for colon cancer. Researchers will use the grant money to evaluate two tests, one that determines whether colon cancer patients will respond to a commonly prescribed drug and another that tests for a genetic mutation that dramatically increases the chance of developing colon cancer.

Others grants awarded to Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research will help scientists study treatments for cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease; and study weight-loss maintenance, the predictors of successful aging in elderly women, and how to use natural language processing to extract data from electronic medical records. Scientists will also compare the costs of cancer diagnosis and treatment in managed care versus fee-for-service systems, compare early and late Metformin treatment in diabetics, assess the feasibility of using the electronic medical record to compare cancer treatments, and study the use of clinical decision support tools to improve care in community hospitals. Scientists will also study cancer screening effectiveness and research in community based health care settings, and how psychosocial stress decreases patient adherence to recommended care.

The Kaiser Permanente Colorado Institute for Health Research in Denver, Colorado was the recipient of several ARRA awards totaling more than $1.8 million. A major focus of the research will involve collaborating with other research centers and health plans to improve cancer care. The cancer research teams will study clinical communications between health care providers and patients, develop tools to evaluate the quality of breast cancer surgery, and assess the effectiveness of genomics and personalized medicine in treating colorectal cancer. In addition, the IHR will lead projects to evaluate and compare common diabetes therapies, study heart failure outcomes, and investigate how electronic medical records can help detect adverse events.

ARRA funding to the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Department of Research & Evaluation will enable researchers to establish a cardiovascular disease surveillance system, develop and test novel risk stratification schemes for adverse outcomes in patients with atrial fibrillation, calculate the incremental effectiveness of the 2-dose varicella vaccination regimen among school-aged children, better understand how comprehensive HIV services provided by a multidisciplinary care team may influence how well patients follow treatment recommendations and increase the pace of development of new studies, and accelerate initiation and recruitment of studies.

The $25 million genotyping grant to the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Calif. will link genetic information to data on participants from RPGEH health surveys, disease registries and Kaiser Permanente’s vast electronic health record database, resulting in a resource that will allow researchers to examine genetic and environmental influences on a wide variety of health conditions. The genotyping accomplished in collaboration with the University of California, San Francisco, will roughly double the number of individuals in the United States available to researchers for genome-wide association studies.

The Kaiser Permanente Division of Research was also awarded was a $7.2 million GO grant to develop a cardiovascular surveillance system for the Cardiovascular Research Network (a collaborative of 14 different health plans across the United States with approximately 11 million health maintenance organization members) and $3.3 million GO grant to create a National Research Database that will organize and leverage Kaiser Permanente’s electronic health records.

Other NIH grants include research and the building of resources aimed at better understanding the causes and treatment of autism, autoimmune disease, breast cancer, chronic diseases, diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, obesity, and successful aging; improving treatment for HIV-infected patients; better understanding the medical care burden of cancer; and improving post-acute care and rehabilitation for stroke patients. Other grants also will be used to study how to use natural language processing to more accurately extract data from the electronic medical record.

"We have a unique opportunity in front of us right now to transform and reform the way we deliver health care in this country," said John H. Cochran, MD, executive director of The Permanente Federation. "Kaiser Permanente believes that through evidence-based research and health information technology we can change how personalized health care is delivered."

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides an unprecedented level of funding ($8.2 billion in extramural funding) to the NIH to help stimulate the U.S. economy through the support and advancement of scientific research. While NIH Institutes and Centers have broad flexibility to invest in many types of grant programs, they will follow the spirit of the ARRA by funding projects that will stimulate the economy, create or retain jobs, and have the potential for making scientific progress in two years.

The National Institutes of Health — the nation’s Medical Research Agency — includes 27 institutes and centers as a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary funding agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

ARRA Awardees from Kaiser Permanente’s research centers include:

Maryam M. Asgari, Defining and Targeting Immune Evasion Mechanisms in Merkel Cell Carcinomas
Lisa A. Croen, Prenatal Exposure to Polyfluoroalkyl Compounds in the EMA Study
Lisa A. Croen, Early Autism Risk Longitudinal Investigation (EARLI) Network
Lisa A. Croen, The Development of a Brief Screener for Research Diagnoses of ASD
Jim Dearing, Support for the Cancer Research Network Clinical Communication Center
Note: see story "First-of-its-Kind Research Center Comes to Colorado"
Gabriel J. Escobar, Tools to Reduce Infant RSV Morbidity and Asthma
Heather Fiegelson, Collaboration with University of Vermont, Improving Breast Cancer Surgery Quality through a Collaborative Surgery Database
Alan Go, Contemporary Treatment and Outcomes for Atrial Fibrillation in Clinical Practice
Alan Go, Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort 2
Alan Go, Management and Outcomes of Heart Failure with Preserved Systolic Function
Alan Go, Improved estimates of the comparative treatment effects of CABG and PCI
Katrina A. Goddard, Comparative Effectiveness in genomic and personalized medicine for colon cancer
Erica P. Gunderson, Lactation and Glucose Tolerance After GDM Pregnancy
Note: listen to "Postpartum Sleep Deprivation, Weight Gain Discussed in Podcast"
Brian L. Hazlehurst, Investigating the generalizability of natural language processing of EMR data
Lisa Herrinton, Kaiser Permanente Autoimmune Disease Registry
Lisa Herrinton, Data Mining Electronic Health Records for Drug Adverse Events
Teresa A. Hillier, Study of Osteoporotic Fractures
Michael Horberg, Optimizing Multidisciplinary HIV Care Team for Maximal HAART Adherence
Note: see story "Kaiser Permanente Director of HIV/AIDS Appointed to Presidential Council"
Michael Horberg, North America AIDS Cohorts Collaboration on Research and Design (NA-ACCORD)
Mark C. Hornbrook, Medical Care Burden of Cancer: System and Data Issues
Mark C. Hornbrook, Collaboration with Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Building CER Capacity: Aligning CRN, CMS, and State Resources to Map Cancer Care
Carlos Iribarren, Estimating the Environmental Burden in Orphan Lung Diseases (Challenge RC1)
Andrew Karter, Failure to Utilize Diabetes Health Services Following a Referral
Lawrence H. Kushi, Prospective Study of Breast Cancer Survivorship
Lawrence H. Kushi, Administrative Supplement: Bay Area Breast Cancer & the Environment Research Center
Lawrence H. Kushi, CRN Program of CER in Genomics & Personalized Medicine of Colorectal Cancer
Lawrence H. Kushi, Building CER Capacity: Aligning CRN, CMS, and State Resources to Map Cancer Care
Theodore R. Levin, Screening Effectiveness And Research in Community-based Healthcare (SEARCH)
David Magid, Development of a Cardiovascular Disease Surveillance System
David Magid, Management and Outcomes of Heart Failure with Preserved Systolic Function
Mary Ann McBurnie, CONCERT, Collaboration with University of Chicago, Comparative Effectiveness Research
David McClure, Collaboration with Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare, Data Mining Electronic Health Records for Drug Adverse Events
Carmit McMullen, Collaboration with Oregon Health & Science University, Clinical Decision Support in Community Hospitals: Barriers and Facilitators
Edward McNulty, Transforming PCI Informed Consent into an Evidence-based Decision-making Tool
Shawn Menefee, Collaboration with University of California San Diego, additional funding for the management of the Pelvic Floor Disorder Network (PFDN)
Gregory A. Nichols, Collaboration with Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, Effectiveness of Immediate vs. Delayed Use of Metformin in New-Onset Type 2 Diabetes
Marsha Raebel, Effectiveness of Immediate vs. Delayed Use of Metformin in New-Onset T2 Diabetes
Kristi Reynolds, Collaboration with Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, Development of a CVD Surveillance System in the CVRN
Kristi Reynolds, Collaboration with Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, Contemporary Treatment and Outcomes for Atrial Fibrillation in Clinical Practice
Debra Ritzwoller, Collaboration with the Cancer Research Network Collaboration, Building a Comparative Effectiveness Research Capacity to Map Cancer Care
Debra Ritzwoller, Medical Care Burden of Cancer: System and Data Issues
Douglas Roblin, Psychosocial effects of patient adherence allostatic load and chronic disease
Elizabeth Sandel, Kaiser Permanente Functional Outcomes System
Note: Read more about "Kaiser Permanente’s Historical Role in Rehabilitation Medicine"
Catherine Schaefer, A Resource for Genetic Epidemiology Research in Adult Health and Aging
Note: listen to "Podcast Details Next Phase of Groundbreaking Kaiser Permanente Genetic Research Program"
Joe V. Selby, Effectiveness of Immediate vs. Delayed Use of Metformin in New-Onset T2 Diabetes
Steve Sidney, Development of a Cardiovascular Surveillance System in the CVRN
David H. Smith, Collaboration with Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, Management and Outcomes of Heart Failure with preserved systolic function
David H. Smith, Collaboration with Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, Development of a Cardiovascular Surveillance System in the CVRN
Barbara Sternfeld, Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN)
Victor J. Stevens, Analysis of five year follow-up data from the Weight Loss Maintenance Trial
Joe F. Terdiman, The Kaiser Permanente National Research Database
William Towner, Collaboration with Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, Optimizing Multidisciplinary HIV Care Team for Maximal HAART Adherence
Hung-Fu Tseng, Collaboration with Los Angeles County (Department of Public Health), Measuring Effectiveness of Two Doses Varicella Vaccine in Los Angeles County
Stephen K. Van Den Eeden, Cost Effectiveness of Hormonal Therapy for Clinically Localized Prostate Cancer
Stephen K. Van Den Eeden, Multi-Center Study of Pancreatic Cancer Etiology
Sheila A. Weinmann, Collaboration with Group Health Cooperative, Cancer Screening Effectiveness and Research in Community-based Healthcare

About Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America’s leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve 8.6 million members in nine states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to: www.kp.org/newscenter.