Grants Awarded

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.

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.

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.