Scientists at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI) have a rare advantage: We work within a system that provides both care and coverage. With a 360-degree view of people’s everyday health experience over time, we discover what works best to serve Kaiser Permanente's mission: better health.
We collaborate closely with Kaiser Permanente Washington's medical staff and other providers — gaining from their perspectives on practical approaches to health care’s toughest problems. Together, we create a learning health care system — a place where research strengthens practice and practice strengthen research.
Our faculty work on interdisciplinary research teams, conducting about 300 studies at any given time. They partner with affiliate researchers and others from academic institutions and health systems and share findings in the public domain to serve the public good.
See our KPWHRI researcher directory.
From cardiovascular health to cancer screening, these are the research stories that made headlines over the last year.
Most of our support comes from federal agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health. We also contract with biomedical companies and receive grants from private foundations. About 5 percent of our budget comes from Kaiser Permanente Washington.
See our list of funders.
Home blood pressure monitoring shown to be an excellent alternative for making new diagnoses of hypertension.
Holt JM, Cusatis R, Mortensen N, Wolfrath N, Hyun N, Winn AN, Brown SA, Somai MM, Crotty BH. Twenty-first century house calls: a survey of ambulatory care providers to inform organisational telehealth strategy. BMJ Health Care Inform. 2022 Dec;29(1):e100626. doi: 10.1136/bmjhci-2022-100626. PubMed
McClure EA, Hamilton L, Schauer GL, Matson TE, Lapham GT. Cannabis and nicotine co-use among primary care patients in a state with legal cannabis access. Addict Behav. 2023;140:107621. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2023.107621. Epub 2023 Jan 20. PubMed
Sprague BL, Chen S, Miglioretti DL, Gard CC, Tice JA, Hubbard RA, Bowles EA, Kaufman PA, Kerlikowske K. Cumulative 6-year risk of screen-detected ductal carcinoma in situ by screening frequency. JAMA Netw Open. 2023 Feb 1; 6(2): e230166. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.0166.
Floyd JS, Walker RL, Kuntz JL, Shortreed SM, Fortmann SP, Bayliss EA, Harrington LB, Fuller S, Albertson-Junkans LH, Powers JD, Lee MH, Temposky LA, Dublin S. Association between diabetes severity and risks of COVID-19 infection and outcomes. J Gen Intern Med. 2023 Feb 16. doi: 10.1007/s11606-023-08076-9. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
KPWHRI oversees all research conducted at Kaiser Permanente Washington, ensuring that all studies involving Kaiser Permanente Washington members are aligned with the organization’s primary mission: to improve health. Researchers from outside Kaiser Permanente Washington can learn more about our processes for collaborating with KPWHRI faculty members.