As a research center embedded within Kaiser Permanente’s large and dynamic health care system, our investigators have a unique opportunity to apply scientific expertise to real-world clinical problems, translate findings into practice, and share what we learn with the broader community.
Dr. Ana Florea is an epidemiologist and post-doctoral research fellow for the Department of Research & Evaluation. She has special interests in vaccine safety and effectiveness, infectious diseases, cancer, and chronic kidney diseases. At Kaiser Permanente Southern California, she is involved in vaccine safety and effectiveness research projects studying shingles and Tdap vaccines. She will also work on projects involving antibiotic resistance and hepatitis B chronic infection.
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Over the years, clinical trials have led to amazing advances in treatment—even cures—for devastating illnesses. William Towner, MD, FACP, FIDSA, regional physician director for clinical trials, describes how trials at Kaiser Permanente contribute to the development of more effective and safer treatments for diseases such as HIV, hepatitis C, cancer, and more. (2:15)
Sarah Carter, DPhil, MA, is a post-doctoral research fellow at Kaiser Permanente Southern California’s Department of Research & Evaluation. She completed her doctoral work at the University of Southampton in England, where she studied childbirth intervention in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS). She is currently studying pre- and perinatal maternal health, environmental exposures, ...
Kaiser Permanente Southern California patients who were Latinx or low-income had the largest percentage increase in use of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Kaiser Permanente research recently published in Journal of Medical Internet Research. Increases in telehealth visits during the COVID-19 pandemic varied across age, sex, race/ethnicity, and household income groups, while decreases ...
Over the last decade, rates of a chronic lung condition known as bronchopulmonary dysplasia have dropped from 20% to less than 2% among very preterm babies at Kaiser Permanente Panorama City. As reported in JAMA Network Open, this decrease is associated with a novel system of care designed by Kaiser Permanente Southern California researchers. Meanwhile, ...
A Kaiser Permanente study of nearly 200,000 children showed that children gained excess weight during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially those between 5 and 11 years old. The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “When we compared the weight gain among children from 2019 to 2020, we found that there was ...
Darryl Palmer-Toy, MD, PhD, is the physician director of the Regional Reference Core Laboratories for Kaiser Permanente Southern California. He has been in this position for 5 years. In this role, Dr. Palmer-Toy oversees the ancillary, clinical chemistry, and immunochemistry departments, which perform about 20 million tests per year. A student of proteomics (the study ...
This month’s IMPACT newsletter features research about how kids put on extra pounds during the pandemic, while vulnerable populations had the largest percentage increases in use of virtual care. Other stories detail research into bariatric surgery and its link to better health for new moms and their babies, and the dramatic drop of broncho- pulmonary dysplasia among very preterm babies at Kaiser Permanente Panorama City. There’s also a Q&A with post-doctoral research fellow, Dr. Sarah Carter!
Investigators with the Division of Health Services Research & Implementation Science study how care is delivered, identify opportunities for care improvement, and implement new approaches for organizing and delivering health services. The division brings together scientists with diverse expertise and training, including emergency medicine, epidemiology, health services research, implementation science, internal medicine, nursing, pharmaceutical economics, and pulmonology.
The division is home to the Care Improvement Research Team, a research team embedded within Kaiser Permanente Southern California’s quality improvement ecosystem. The team works closely with clinical and operational partners at Kaiser Permanente Southern California to identify, prioritize, and solve problems related to quality and affordability. Its goal is to reduce unnecessary practice variation, improve affordability, and transform care.