August 2023

Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute recently received word of 2 new awards.

Accuracy of Suicide Risk Screening in Teens

A 1-year, $50,000 grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Major goals: The major goals of this project are to evaluate the accuracy of PHQ-9 depression questionnaires and statistical models for predicting risk of self-harm after mental health and general medical visits among adolescents. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Gregory Simon.

NIH Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory — Coordinating Center (U24)

A 6-year, $867,513 grant from the National Institutes of Health Common Fund. Major goals: The major goal of this project is to support a range of pragmatic clinical trials based in health systems across the U.S. KPWHRI collaborators will participate in the health systems interaction core and the biostatistics and research methods core. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Gregory Simon.


July 2023

Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute recently received word of 8 new awards.

Advancing Health Equity Through Implementation Science: Phase II Administrative Supplement

A 1-year, $113,376 grant from the National Cancer Institute. Major goals: To develop an implementation toolkit for social health screening and use of social service resource locators in primary care settings. To accomplish this, we will partner with 3 other Implementation Science Centers in Cancer Control (ISC3) Program sites and conduct co-design sessions with toolkit end users. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Meagan Brown.

CHCF — Hazel Health Evaluation

A 1-year, $35,306 grant from the California Health Care Foundation. Major goals: To lead an evaluation design process to assess a model of virtual pediatric mental health service delivery in schools, focusing on the impact on access, outcomes, and patient experience. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Maggie Jones.

CHCF — Innovation Fund Evaluation Toolkit

A 1-year, $30,000 grant from the California Health Care Foundation. Major goals: To develop an evaluation toolkit that will support companies that the California Health Care Foundation invests in to evaluate the implementation and impact of their products. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Maggie Jones.

DIGITS Trial Administrative Supplement

A 1-year, $386,978 grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Major goals: To obtain funding to accomplish goals that are within the scope of the approved award for the Digital Treatments for Substance Use Disorder (DIGITS) trial but have incurred unforeseen additional costs due to contracting delays and COVID-19. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Joseph Glass.

Multi-Level Influences of Care Quality Measures for Unhealthy Alcohol Use

A 2-year, $221,282 grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Major goals: To examine substance-use-related quality measures and how they vary based on patient, provider, clinic, and environmental factors. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Joseph Glass.

Pilot Testing Implementation of Suicide Risk Prediction Algorithms to Support Suicide Prevention in Primary Care

A 3-year, $751,682 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. Major goals: The major goal of this project is to pilot use of suicide risk prediction algorithms in primary care using a human-centered design approach. Specifically, we plan to use the Discover, Design/Build, and Test framework to support implementation of clinical decision support tools to help primary care clinicians screen, assess, and engage at-risk patients in risk mitigation during primary care encounters to reduce suicidal behavior and attempts. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Julie Richards.

Statistical Methods for Correlated Outcome and Covariate Errors in Studies of HIV/AIDS

A 5-year, $1,528,710 grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Major goals: We will develop new statistical methods and study designs that combine routinely collected, error-prone data on everyone with validated data collected on a subsample to reduce bias and improve precision of study estimates. We will develop software and tutorial papers to disseminate this research. We will also apply these methods and designs to studies of HIV/AIDS. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Pamela Shaw.

Subset Calibration Methods: Enhancing Confounding Adjustment Based on Additional Information from a Subset

A 2-year, $613,316 grant from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Major goals: This project will investigate approaches for using granular clinical information from a subset of the overall population to improve confounding adjustment in investigations of medication safety/effectiveness in the overall population where such information is incompletely captured. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Pamela Shaw.


June 2023

Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute recently received word of 6 new awards.

CHCF Samaritan Qualitative: Evaluation of a Digital Health Intervention for People Experiencing Homelessness

A 1-year, $124,558 grant from the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF). Major goals: The major goal of this project is to evaluate the utilization and experience of the Samaritan technology platform. This emerging technology supports people experiencing homelessness to receive incentives for adhering to specified medical guidelines, education, and navigation across clinical and community-based services. Samaritan contracted with CHCF to coordinate care with a team of locally based care coordinators (MedPOINT). This mixed-method evaluation will use data from Samaritan, MedPOINT, and safety net health care clinics to determine the return on investment and programmatic improvements. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Melissa Trapp Petty.

California Academic Health Department Program Evaluation

A 2-year, $40,000 grant from the California Endowment. Major goals: The Center for Community Health and Evaluation will serve as the evaluation partner for the Public Health Institute’s California Academic Health Department program, assessing the impact and effectiveness of the program and highlighting any opportunities for programmatic improvement. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Maggie Jones.

Subset Calibration Methods: Enhancing Confounding Adjustment Based on Additional Information from a Subset

A 2-year, $613,316 grant from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Major goals: This project will investigate approaches for using granular clinical information from a subset of the overall population to improve confounding adjustment in investigations of medication safety/effectiveness in the overall population where such information is incompletely captured. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Pamela Shaw.

Use of Natural Language Processing (NLP) in a Pharmacoepidemiology Study: The Examination of Neuropsychiatric Events and Incident Use of Montelukast Among Patients with Asthma

A 2-year, $48,119 grant from Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. Major goals: This study is part of the Multi-source Observational Safety Study for Advanced Information Classification Using NLP (MOSAIC-NLP), which is funded by the FDA Sentinel Innovation Center and led by Cerner (an Oracle company), with Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute offering expert advice on use of NLP methods. The overall goal of MOSAIC-NLP is to demonstrate the usability and value of currently available data sources and techniques in electronic medical records by harnessing claims and EHR data — including structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data — in a pharmacoepidemiology study. This study will use real-world longitudinal data from the Cerner Enviza Electronic Health Records (CE EHR) linked to claims with NLP technology applied to physician notes. NLP methods will be used to identify and contextualize pre-exposure confounding variables and incorporate unstructured EHR data into confounding adjustment. As a use case, this study will examine the association between montelukast treatment and adverse events related to mental health for patients with asthma. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is David Carrell.

Venous Thromboembolism Sequelae in a Population-Based Inception Cohort

A 5-year, $4,070,912 grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Major goals: The major goals of this project are to characterize patient-relevant symptoms and clinical outcomes at multiple timepoints in the first 12 months after an incident venous thromboembolism, and to evaluate biomarkers and modifiable risk factors in relation to these adverse venous thromboembolism sequelae. These goals will be accomplished within the setting of a prospective population-based inception cohort study including data from surveys, accelerometers, electronic health records, and biomarkers measured in blood. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Laura Harrington.

Weight Stigma in Health Care Inventory

A 1-year, $27,000 grant from the University of Iowa. Major goals: The major goal of this project is to investigate whether Kaiser Permanente Washington members with a high body mass index experience stigma in health care related to body weight by surveying members who had a primary care visit from July to December 2022. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is David Arterburn.


May 2023

KPWHRI recently received word of 9 new awards

Anticholinergic Use and Physical Functioning in Older Adults

A 1-year, $29,858 grant from the University of Washington. Major goals: To examine a weighted cumulative anticholinergic exposure and change in physical performance measures using data from the Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) Study. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Yu-Ru Su.

Care Navigation Trial for Substance Use Disorder

A 5-year, $1,881,965 grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse through the Center for Dissemination and Implementation at Stanford (C-DIAS). Major goals: The research will study how to sustain digital interventions for patients with substance use disorders in general primary care settings while promoting equity in the provision of these interventions. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Joseph Glass.

CHCF Samaritan Qualitative Evaluation of a Digital Health Intervention for People Experiencing Homelessness

A 1-year, $124,558 grant from the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF). Major goals: The major goal of this project is to evaluate the utilization and experience of the Samaritan technology platform. Samaritan contracted with CHCF to coordinate care with a team of locally based care coordinators (MedPOINT). This emerging technology supports people experiencing homelessness to receive incentives for adhering to specified medical guidelines, education, and navigation across clinical and community-based services. This mixed-method evaluation will use data from Samaritan, MedPOINT, and safety net health care clinics to determine the return on investment and programmatic improvements. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Melissa Trapp Petty.

Evidence-Based Practice Center Review: Health Benefits of Breastfeeding Among Children (Refinement Stage)

A 2-year, $241,929 grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Major goals: To support the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force by conducting and completing a systematic review on the currently contracted topic. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Nora Henrikson.

Estimating the Prevalence of Medication Side Effects for People Starting Antidepressants

A 1-year, $340,657 grant from Sage Therapeutics Inc. Major goals: Estimate the prevalence of medication side effects for people starting antidepressants. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Robert Penfold.

Health Systems Node of the NIDA Clinical Trials Network — Collaborative Care Interventions for Polysubstance Use in Primary Care Settings (Co-CARE Study)

A 2-year, $99,828 grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Major goals: We plan a 2-phase study in primary care settings, including federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and FQHC-type clinics. While the study design and methodologic issues will be finalized during protocol development, the overall plan is as follows. In phase 1 (approximately 1 year), we will plan, develop, and refine a treatment model, and pilot test its feasibility and acceptability. During this phase, we will consider and integrate intervention components from various NIDA, HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-term), and mental health studies, and gather stakeholder input. In phase 2 (approximately 4 years), the team will conduct a randomized controlled efficacy-effectiveness trial with approximately 60 primary care providers (PCPs) and 500 adult primary care patients, utilizing a cluster-randomized design (PCPs being the unit of randomization). The multipronged collaborative care intervention will target patients with current unhealthy opioid and polysubstance use (that is, concurrent opioid and stimulant, sedative, or alcohol use). The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Katharine Bradley.

Obesity, Chemotherapy Dosing, and Breast Cancer Outcomes

A 2-year, $218,410 grant from the National Cancer Institute. Major goals: The major goals of this proposal are to characterize patterns of chemotherapy administration post-toxicity, and evaluate how patient-, provider-, and facility-level factors affect chemotherapy administration (and, ultimately, the dose intensity subsequent to toxicity). To address these questions, we will leverage the rich, real-world chemotherapy data of the Optimal Breast Cancer Dosing (OBCD) Study, which has collected detailed data to evaluate whether chemotherapy dose reductions mediate the associations between obesity and adverse breast cancer outcomes. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Erin Bowles.

University of Washington Suicide Care Research Center (UWSCRC) — Core

A 5-year, $25,003 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. Major goals: This practice-based suicide prevention research center is focused on improving suicide care for adolescents and young adults in outpatient medical settings by enhancing the therapeutic alliance and increasing the self-efficacy of all involved parties (for example, providers, patients, family members). The methods core will provide research infrastructure to the research projects, including common data elements and a data repository harmonized with electronic health records. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Julie Richards.

University of Washington Suicide Care Research Center (UWSCRC) — Project

A 5-year, $77,283 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. Major goals: The major goals of this project include co-design and pilot testing the Aeschi Model in Collaborative Care to intervene at the short-term risk management, treatment, and follow-up steps on the suicide care pathway for adolescent and young adult patients ages 13 to 30 years old. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Julie Richards.


April 2023

KPWHRI recently received word of 2 new awards.

NIA AD/ADRD (Alzheimer’s Disease/Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Dementias) Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory

A 1-year, $189,494 grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA). Major goals: The major goal is to develop and test a pilot study to assess the acceptability and feasibility of an intervention to help reduce the utilization of medications that may increase the risk of falls in older adults living with dementia. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Ben Balderson.

Prospective Observational Cohort Study to Assess SARS-CoV-2-Vaccine Effectiveness

A 1-year, $68,942 grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Major goals: The major goals of this project are to assess how well COVID-19 vaccines protect against infections in the community with particular focus on children ages 5 to 18 years. Results will provide information on how long immunity may last following vaccination, how well vaccines work, and when boosters may be needed. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Tyler Ross.


March 2023

KPWHRI recently received word of 2 new awards.

Creating a Sentinel Linked EHR-Claims Development Network (DI7)

A 2-year, $425,939 grant from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Major goals: The focus of this Sentinel task order is to use natural language processing (NLP) to create a linked electronic health record (EHR)-claims development network. KPWHRI will take part in this multi-site project by contributing to the development of a standardized process for assembly and storage of free-text notes and next steps for routine meta data extraction from structured EHR tables. KPWHRI will also run a demonstration project aimed to demonstrate efficient validation using NLP-assisted chart abstractions. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is David Carrell.

Development of a Digital Decision Support Tool to Facilitate Developmentally Appropriate Adolescent Contraceptive Counseling in Primary Care

A 2-year, $55,033 grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Major goals: To develop a digital decision support tool to facilitate developmentally appropriate adolescent contraceptive counseling in primary care. We hope to recruit primary care clinicians and teens at Kaiser Permanente Washington to participate in design sessions (focus groups and/or interviews) outside of clinical time. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Annie Hoopes.


February 2023

KPWHRI recently received word of 2 new awards.

CHCF — Samaritan Evaluation

A 1-year, $23,423 grant from the California Health Care Foundation. Major goals: To provide evaluation support to understand the impact of the Samaritan platform on care management and health outcomes. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Melissa Trapp Petty.

MELO Housing for Health

A 1-year, $174,182 grant from the Kaiser Permanente Program Office. Major goals: To evaluate the ongoing implementation of the Kaiser Permanente Health, Housing, and Justice: Medical Legal Partnership Initiative, and to provide Kaiser Permanente and other stakeholders with practical insights for improving, sustaining, and scaling this work. The evaluation focuses on assessing changes in staff and system capacity, identifying promising practices in development of workflows and protocols to effectively serve patients, and identifying key learnings related to collaboration across the medical and legal sectors. (MELO stands for measurement, evaluation, and learning for outcomes.) The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Natasha Arora.