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A year-long study of mask adherence and social distancing among more than 100,000 people in 126 U.S. cities found people were 3 times more likely to wear masks correctly in places where a mask mandate was in place. The study was published recently in the American Journal of Infection Control. “City, county, and state leaders can ...

Rulin Hechter, MD, PhD, is an infectious disease epidemiologist in the Department of Research & Evaluation who focuses on the prevention and treatment of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. She received her medical training from Suzhou Medical College and her master’s degree in epidemiology and biostatistics from Fudan University, both in China. She received ...

Before COVID-19 vaccines became available, people with Down syndrome were less likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19 than people without the condition, according to a study of more than 12,000 Kaiser Permanente Southern California members published on June 24, 2022, in The Journal of Infectious Diseases. However, the study found that people with Down syndrome faced ...

Anny Xiang, PhD, MS, scientific director of the Division of Biostatics Research at the Department of Research & Evaluation, received the American Diabetes Association’s 2022 Norbert Freinkel Award on June 4, 2022. The lecture award is the ADA’s highest award for outstanding contributions in the field of diabetes and pregnancy. “Dr. Xiang’s body of work has ...

In December 2021, the Pfizer-BioNTech medication Paxlovid received emergency authorization as a treatment to prevent severe health problems from COVID-19 that could lead to hospitalization and death. But recently, small studies with less than a dozen people began to show up in the media linking the medication to a rebound in COVID-19 symptoms following recovery. On ...

A study of patients at Kaiser Permanente in Southern California showed that when both the delta and omicron variants were circulating in December 2021, patients who had SARS-CoV-2 infections with the omicron variant had substantially less risk of severe illness and shorter hospital stays than those infected with the delta variant. The study was published ...

A study published June 6, 2022,  in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety showed that a comprehensive approach to improving colon cancer care at Kaiser Permanente in Southern California resulted in a 24% decrease in mortality over 7 years. “If a new drug or surgical procedure reduced deaths this dramatically, it would be ...

A new dedicated clinical research space at the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center provides researchers and staff with expanded opportunities to bring groundbreaking clinical research to Kaiser Permanente Southern California members. Located on the first floor of 1505 N. Edgemont on the medical center campus, the 1,400-square-foot Kaiser Permanente Clinical Research Center at Los Angeles ...