Q&A with Physician Researcher of the Year: Dr. Michael Fassett
Michael J. Fassett, MD, came to work at Kaiser Permanente in 2000. Since then, his dedication to his patients through research has grown. He’s published more than 50 research papers in peer-reviewed journals. Now, as the regional physician-in-charge for Maternal-Fetal Medicine and the area research ...
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Five questions for … Dr. Annette Langer-Gould
Annette Langer-Gould, MD, PhD, is a translational neuroscientist with the Southern California Permanente Medical Group. She treats people with multiple sclerosis (MS) at the Kaiser Permanente ...
COVID bivalent booster protects well against hospitalization
A Kaiser Permanente study shows the Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 BA.4/5 bivalent mRNA vaccine helped protect against a range of COVID symptoms and was effective against the COVID XBB strain sublineages. ...
Kaiser Permanente Southern California to lead CDC-funded center to improve outbreak and disease prediction
Kaiser Permanente Southern California has been tapped to lead an innovation center that will develop advanced modeling approaches to better predict disease outbreaks and prepare the United States ...
Moderna COVID-19 vaccine effective against virus variants
December 16, 2021Kaiser Permanente research published on December 15, 2021 in The British Medical Journal showed 2 doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine were highly effective against all SARS-CoV-2 variants. However, vaccine effectiveness against the delta variant moderately declined with increasing time after vaccination. “We conducted a previous study that showed the high effectiveness of the 2-dose Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, ...Read more...Five questions for … Dr. Matthew Mefford
December 16, 2021Matthew Mefford, PhD, is a cardiovascular disease epidemiologist and research scientist in the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Department of Research & Evaluation. His research interests include heart failure, cardiovascular disease disparities, risk factors and outcomes, and the intersection of chronic disease and infectious diseases. He also maintains a broad focus on applying epidemiologic methods to ...Read more...Heart attack patients may have delayed care over COVID-19 concerns
December 14, 2021A study of Kaiser Permanente Southern California members shows that rates of hospital admissions or emergency department visits for heart attacks dropped significantly after stay-at-home orders for the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020. These findings, published in The Permanente Journal on December 13, 2021, suggest that people may have delayed seeking care out of concern ...Read more...New Virtual Research Office enables physician research
December 14, 2021Kaiser Permanente Southern California has launched a new Virtual Research Office portal to make it easier for physicians to conduct clinical research that can have a direct impact on the quality of care provided to Kaiser Permanente members. The new portal, developed and housed by the Department of Research & Evaluation, provides a single point of ...Read more...People with HIV are at increased risk for heart failure
December 13, 2021People with HIV are at higher risk of developing heart failure than people without HIV, a new study found. The research, published Dec. 13, 2021, in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, is one of the largest studies to investigate heart failure risk in people with HIV and how that risk varies by age, gender, race, and ethnicity. “Cardiovascular ...Read more...Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is effective 5 months after 2nd dose
November 29, 2021Kaiser Permanente research in Southern California published November 25, 2021, in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas confirmed high Moderna COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness up to 5 months after the second dose. Effectiveness was 87% against COVID-19 infection, 96% against COVID-19 hospitalization, and 98% against COVID-19 death. “This research provides reassuring evidence of the high effectiveness of ...Read more...Higher risk of dementia for older adults living with HIV
November 28, 2021A study reviewing 16 years of patient data found nearly double the rate of dementia among people with HIV compared with those without HIV. The rate of dementia decreased over time for both groups but remained higher for those with HIV, reported research published in the journal AIDS. The study compared more than 13,000 people with HIV, ages ...Read more...Exercise during pandemic linked to better mental health
November 10, 2021People who exercised more during the initial lockdown period of the COVID-19 pandemic experienced less anxiety and depression than those who didn’t exercise, according to new research published November 11, 2021, in Preventive Medicine. The research also showed that people who spent more time outdoors typically experienced lower levels of anxiety and depression than those ...Read more...Five questions for … Dr. Stanley Xu
November 10, 2021Dr. Stanley Xu is a senior research scientist biostatistician in the Division of Biostatistics Research in the Department of Research & Evaluation. He has served as principal investigator, co-investigator, and lead biostatistician on randomized trials and observational studies funded by the National Institutes of Health, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Centers for Disease Control ...Read more...Kaiser Permanente members invited to join flu vaccine study
October 27, 2021The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has selected Kaiser Permanente Southern California as a new site in its U.S. Flu Vaccine Effectiveness network. Kaiser Permanente Southern California is inviting its members to participate in a nationwide study of how well flu and COVID-19 vaccines are working. It is one of 2 new sites selected by ...Read more...