Five questions for Dr. Mingsum Lee
Mingsum Lee, MD, PhD, has been named as the 2025 Southern California Permanente Medical Group Physician Researcher of the Year. Commenting about her selection for the award, one nominator said Dr. Lee “is a true quadruple threat as an exceptional clinician, educator, administrator, and prolific ...
Featured News
Los Angeles wildfires increased virtual medical visits
In January 2025, when wildfires swept from the foothills above Los Angeles into the densely populated urban areas below, evacuations ensued and a thick layer of smoke spread across the region. Air quality ...
Predicting heart issues among breast cancer survivors
Researchers have developed a new risk calculation model to help predict the risks of heart problems for breast cancer survivors. Their research was published in JAMA Oncology in October 2025. “There ...
Diabetes medications vary in ability to reduce heart attacks and strokes
A new study led by Kaiser Permanente researchers compared how well 4 different types of glucose-lowering medications reduced the risk of heart attack and stroke for patients with type 2 diabetes, providing ...
5 questions for … Dr. William Towner
May 19, 2022William Towner, MD, FACP, FIDSA, is the regional physician director for the Division of Clinical Trials and leads the Clinician Investigator Program for the Southern California Permanente Medical Group. He also serves in a leadership role for HIV services at Kaiser Permanente Southern California. He was extensively involved in research on infectious diseases since 2000 ...Read more...COVID-19 vaccine protection against hospitalization wanes for the most vulnerable
April 25, 2022Research released in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine shows that a booster dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine provides strong protection, roughly 80% in the first few months against hospital admissions and emergency department visits caused by the delta and omicron variants. However, against omicron, this protection wanes over time for immunocompromised individuals — even after ...Read more...Heart attacks increased in days after 2020 election
April 20, 2022A Kaiser Permanente study conducted in Southern and Northern California found hospitalizations for heart attack, stroke, and heart failure were 17% higher in the 5 days after the 2020 election than in the same 5 days 2 weeks before the election. The study was published April 20, 2022, in JAMA Network Open. “This study of the ...Read more...Five questions for … Dr. “Charlie” Huang
March 25, 2022Cheng-Wei “Charlie” Huang, MD, is a hospitalist at the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center who has spent recent years also focused on research that can improve care for patients. In addition to his research and clinical duties, Dr. Huang is the assistant program director of the Los Angeles Medical Center’s internal medicine residency, where ...Read more...Shoulder pain rare after vaccination
March 21, 2022Shoulder pain and injury are extremely rare after any type of vaccination in the upper arm, according to pre-pandemic Kaiser Permanente research published March 22, 2022, in Annals of Internal Medicine. Conducted from April 2016 through December 2017, the study found fewer than 1 in 10,000 people reported shoulder injuries in the more than 2.2 million ...Read more...3 doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine highly effective against hospitalization from omicron or delta.
February 21, 2022Kaiser Permanente research published Feb. 21, 2022, in Nature Medicine shows that while Moderna COVID-19 vaccine protection is strong against coronavirus infection by the delta variant, it is not as strong against infection from the omicron variant. Three doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine were highly effective against hospitalization caused by infection from either the omicron ...Read more...Vaccine study looks to prevent E. coli sepsis
February 21, 2022Kaiser Permanente Southern California is participating in a clinical trial of a novel vaccine against invasive E. coli infections in older adults. William Towner, MD, the principal investigator for Kaiser Permanente Southern California, said, “I’m enthusiastic about this cutting-edge research because it has the potential, if successful, to reduce morbidity and mortality from a very common ...Read more...3 doses of Pfizer–BioNTech COVID vaccine better than 2
February 14, 2022A Kaiser Permanente study published February 14, 2022, in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas found that 1 month after a third dose, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness is higher for preventing infection and hospitalization than 2 doses of the vaccine after 1 month. “When we looked at the effectiveness of the 2 doses of Pfizer–BioNTech ...Read more...Five questions for … Dr. Amandeep Sahota
January 31, 2022Amandeep Sahota, MD, directs the Department of Hepatology at the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center. She is also assistant medical director of Transplant Services for Kaiser Permanente Southern California. In this role, she promotes clinical quality programs, implementation of virtual medicine, and data analytics on chronic diseases outcomes. Her efforts have improved patient access ...Read more...Hospitalized or not, COVID-19 patients put high demands on health system
January 7, 2022A study of Kaiser Permanente Southern California members diagnosed with COVID-19 found that they had frequent health care visits during the month after their diagnosis—whether or not they stayed overnight in the hospital. As reported in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, the average number of visits over 30 days was nearly 7 for patients who ...Read more...