Heart disease is the leading cause of death for Americans. Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI) scientists are working to understand how to reduce our risk of heart attacks, stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases throughout life.
Addressing risk factors, improving diagnosis, and exploring how medications, genes, and everyday life affect our cardiovascular health at different ages and stages are central to this work — as is translating research findings into practical, personalized care.
“We’ve found that helping patients and health care teams work together on personalized care plans is the best path to lifelong heart health,” says Beverly Green, MD, MPH, whose recent work has focused on improving the diagnosis of high blood pressure.
Additional focus areas for KPWHRI scientists include exploring the impact of cardiovascular diseases on other health conditions — and vice versa. Recently, this has led researchers Sascha Dublin, MD, PhD, and Laura B. Harrington, PhD, MPH, to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular health.
Below are other research highlights from KPWHRI’s cardiovascular health scientists (please visit their bios to learn more):
Barbalic M, Dupuis J, Dehghan A, Bis JC, Hoogeveen RC, Schnabel RB, Nambi V, Bretler M, Smith NL, Peters A, Lu C, Tracy RP, Aleksic N, Heeriga J, Keaney JF Jr, Rice K, Lip GY, Vasan RS, Glazer NL, Larson MG, Uitterlinden AG, Yamamoto J, Durda P, Haritunians T, Psaty BM, Boerwinkle E, Hofman A, Koenig W, Jenny NS, Witteman JC, Ballantyne C, Benjamin EJ. Large-scale genomic studies reveal central role of ABO in sP-selectin and sICAM-1 levels. Hum Mol Genet. 2010;19(9):1863-72. Epub 2010 Feb 18. PubMed
Baum RA, Rutter CM, Sunshine JH, Blebea JS, Blebea J, Carpenter JP, Dickey KW, Quinn SF, Gomes AS, Grist TM, et al. Multicenter trial to evaluate vascular magnetic resonance angiography of the lower extremity. JAMA. 1995;274(11):875-80. PubMed
Beecham GW, Bis JC, Martin ER, Choi SH, DeStefano AL, van Duijn CM, Fornage M, Gabriel SB, Koboldt DC, Larson DE, Naj AC, Psaty BM, Salerno W, Bush WS, Foroud TM, Wijsman E, Farrer LA, Goate A, Haines JL, Pericak-Vance MA, Boerwinkle E, Mayeux R, Seshadri S, Schellenberg G. The Alzheimer's Disease Sequencing Project: study design and sample selection. Neurol Genet. 2017 13;3(5):e194. doi: 10.1212/NXG.0000000000000194. eCollection 2017 Oct. PubMed
Beinart R, Zhang Y, Lima JA, Bluemke DA, Soliman EZ, Heckbert SR, Post WS, Guallar E, Nazarian S. The QT interval is associated with incident cardiovascular events: the MESA study. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2014;64(20):2111-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2014.08.039. Epub 2014 Nov 10. PubMed
Bekwelem W, Jensen PN, Norby FL, Soliman EZ, Agarwal SK, Lip GY, Pan W, Folsom AR, Longstreth WT Jr, Alonso A, Heckbert SR, Chen LY. Carotid atherosclerosis and stroke in atrial fibrillation: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study. Stroke. 2016;47(6):1643-6. doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.116.013133. Epub 2016 May 5. PubMed
Sascha Dublin, MD, PhDSenior Investigator |
Beverly B. Green, MD, MPHSenior Investigator |
Laura Harrington, PhD, MPHAssistant Investigator |
Ellen O'Meara, PhDPrincipal Collaborative Scientist |
Nicole M. Gatto, PhD, MPHPrincipal Collaborative Scientist |
Meagan C. Brown, PhD, MPHAssistant Investigator |
James Floyd, MD, MS
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology
University of Washington
Susan Heckbert, MD, PhD
University of Washington (UW) Department of Epidemiology; UW Cardiovascular Health Research Unit
Nicholas L. Smith, PhD, MPH
UW Professor, Epidemiology, Cardiovascular Health Research Unit
Director, Seattle Epidemiology and Information Resource Center, VA Puget Sound Health Care System