Kaiser Permanente Division of Research

About DOR More than 60 years ago, our founder Morris F. Collen, MD, recognized the potential of combining the power of information technology with clinical care and sophisticated data analytics. Since its inception in 1961, Kaiser Permanente’s Division of Research has become internationally respected for research that transforms health by discovering the key drivers of health and disease, and identifying effective and efficient ways to deliver health care. The Division is one of the nation’s largest research facilities outside of a government or university setting. We are the primary professional home of more than 60 research scientists and 600 staff members who lead studies in epidemiology, health services, and clinical trials. Our studies cover a wide range of clinical topics, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, substance abuse, mental health, maternal and child health, and women’s health. Our research addresses broad issues, including the role of genes and the environment in health, the influence of behavior on disease prevention and chronic illness management, drug safety, health care policy, health services delivery, and disparities. We have almost 400 ongoing projects and contribute more than 500 scientific papers to peer-reviewed journals each year. The Division’s work is funded primarily by federal agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The Permanente Medical Group and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan’s Community Benefit Program are our major internal sponsors. Partnerships and collaboration are a hallmark of our work. We provide crucial support to physician researchers from The Permanente Medical Group, and we collaborate with researchers from other regions of Kaiser Permanente, other organizations in the Health Care Systems Research Network, federal and state agencies, and academic institutions across the country. Of particular note are our rich collaborative relationships with academic centers in the Bay Area, including the University of California, San Francisco; Stanford University School of Medicine; and the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health. Epidemiology The Division derives its power from being a research enterprise embedded in a large, technologically sophisticated, integrated health care system. Our research program is built on a base of rigorous epidemiologic investigation in a diverse population. As a pioneer in electronic medical records, Kaiser Permanente created a ‘natural resource’ for research, with rich data that spans decades of care for millions of people. An exemplar is our landmark CARDIA study, which has 30 years of patient follow-up and continues today. The diverse participants recruited in 1986 have enabled us to identify early-life risk factors for heart disease later in life.