Grants Awarded 2023

A 1-year, $22,088 grant from the University of Washington. Major goals: To collaborate on a study at University of Washington using secondary data from Harborview Medical Center to develop better methods of identifying alcohol withdrawal syndrome from hospital records. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Theresa Matson.

Center for Gun Violence Research and Education Award

A 3-year, $53,963 grant from Kaiser Permanente. Major goals: To support and expand evidence-based innovation implementation to reduce firearm deaths and injuries in health care and, specifically, to optimize clinical prevention practices that are health-focused and racially equitable in partnership with people who provide and receive care in health care systems. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Julie Richards.

Next Generation COVID-19 Vaccine Development Program

A 1-year, $72,419 grant from the National Cancer Institute. Major goals: To develop template protocols to facilitate the conduct of clinical trials of next generation COVID vaccines. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Lisa Jackson.

Patient Provider Communication Larch Supplement

A 1-year, $99,999 grant from the National Cancer Institute. Major goals: To better understand patient and provider factors associated with patient portal use and video viewership as well as to understand the value of patient portal and digital media in improving patient-provider communication. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Karen Wernli.

A 3-year, $611,094 grant from Kaiser Permanente. Major goals: The Kaiser Permanente Excellence in Cancer Care program is seeking to develop a survey of Kaiser Permanente members who are undergoing treatment for cancer about their experiences. Major goals are to: (1) modify an existing survey being used in care delivery in Kaiser Permanente of the Northwest, (2) develop specifications for which and how many patients will be surveyed and when in the course of their treatment, (3) develop and test options for the mode of survey with the intent of a method that could be used at Kaiser Permanente routinely, (4) field the survey, and (5) report on the feasibility of different survey methods (including response rates) and the interpretability of the responses. The intent is to pilot the survey in Kaiser Permanente Washington and Kaiser Permanente of Colorado working with the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute Survey Research Center. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Marlaine Figueroa Gray.

Opioid Cohort Consortium (OPICO) Pilot Year One

A 1-year, $30,000 grant from the World Health Organization. Major goals: To build infrastructure for OPICO on cancer risk and opioid use. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Karen Wernli

A 1-year, $72,234 grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Major goals: To support the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and/or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by conducting and completing a systematic review. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Paula Blasi.

Evaluating Centralizing Interventions to Address Low Adherence to Lung Cancer Screening Follow-Up in Decentralized Settings

A 5-year, $729,721 grant from the National Cancer Institute. Major goals: In a hybrid effectiveness design, evaluate barriers to lung cancer screening in community practice, evaluate strategies to improve lung cancer screening adherence, and measure implementation strategies for adoption. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Karen Wernli.

Incorporate Frequently Used Engineered Features from EHRs into the Sentinel Common Data Model in the Sentinel EHR and Claims Linked Data Partner Network

A 1-year, $100,000 grant from the Food and Drug Administration. Major goals: Incorporate features from electronic health records (EHRs) derived from natural language processing into the FDA common data model, including:

• Suicidal thoughts and behaviors, especially history of suicide attempt
• Documented changes in medication dose
• Medication side effects and adverse reactions
• Pregnancy measures

The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Robert Penfold.

Maintenance of the Innovation Center (Year 5)

A 1-year, $15,182 grant from the Food and Drug Administration. Major goals: The major goals of the Innovation Center (IC) are to provide a deep and diverse expertise in novel methods, innovation, and data sources coupled with an equally deep understanding of the operations and infrastructure of the FDA’s Sentinel Initiative. The IC is responsible for identifying methodological gaps and developing methods to improve the utility of Sentinel by developing new Sentinel analysis tools and creating new approaches to automate key epidemiologic study operations, particularly for electronic health record data. The IC Executive Leadership Team has created and will maintain the organizational structure, administrative processes, and governance for the IC and its network of scientific collaborators. The IC will continue to maintain a diverse team with expertise in epidemiology, clinical medicine, pharmacy, statistics, health informatics, data science (specifically, artificial intelligence — natural language processing and machine learning), network operations, and training to achieve these goals. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Jennifer Nelson.

Master Plan for Integration of Innovation Technologies and Innovation Center Collaboration Activities (Year 5)

A 1-year, $37,641 grant from the Food and Drug Administration. Major goals: The major goals of the Sentinel Innovation Center (IC) Masterplan are to complete the 5-year roadmap (2019 to 2024) for the IC to achieve the vision of a query-ready distributed data network containing linked electronic health record (EHR) claims data with accompanying methods and reusable analysis tools. This is operationalized through projects targeting 5 key strategic areas: (1) Data Infrastructure, (2) Feature Engineering, (3) Causal Inference, (4) Detection Analytics, and (5) Use Case Implementation (recently planned for year 5). The projects focus on utilizing emerging technologies including feature engineering, natural language processing, advanced analytics, and data interoperability to improve Sentinel’s capabilities. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Jennifer Nelson.

Patient Provider Communication Larch Study Supplement

A 1-year, $99,999 grant from the National Cancer Institute. Major goals: (1) Understand patient and provider factors associated with patient portal use and video viewership, (2) Understand the value of patient portal and digital media in improving patient-provider communication. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Karen Wernli.

SCDM 8.2.0 Implementation

A 1-year, $44,303 grant from the Food and Drug Administration. Major goals: The major goals of this project are to respond to the changes required by the minor release version of the Sentinel Common Data Model (SCDM) v8.2.0 in fall 2023. The Sentinel Operations Center expects that Sentinel Data Partners will be able to implement these changes to the model within a scheduled data refresh. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is David Carrell.

Sentinel Year 10 (OY2024) Infrastructure

A 1-year, $167,280 grant from the Food and Drug Administration. Major goals: The major goals of this project are to complete the various tasks required for Sentinel Data Partners (DPs) under the operational year (OY) 2024 Infrastructure work order. Most of the requirements involve DP staff to run data requests or return data and documents of various types to the Sentinel Operations Center via the Sentinel PopMedNet Distributed Query Tool System. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is David Carrell.

Sentinel Year 10 (OY2024) Querying Work Order: Active Risk Identification and Analysis (ARIA) – Kaiser Permanente Washington

A 1-year, $53,847 grant from the Food and Drug Administration. Major goals: The major goals of this project are to perform the routine querying tasks required for Sentinel Data Partners (DPs) in operational year (OY) 2024. Routine querying involves execution of analytic packages, sometimes supplemented with minimal amounts of custom coding developed by the Sentinel Operations Center (SOC), against a DP’s production Sentinel Distributed Database (i.e., last approved refresh or ETL [extract, transform, and load]). DPs will receive query requests and be asked to “opt in” by executing the routine query and transmitting aggregated results back to the SOC. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is David Carrell.

Social and Behavioral Determinants of MOUD Utilization and Opioid Overdose

A 5-year, $1,140,852 grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Major goals: Death rates among middle-aged adults, the largest demographic group in the U.S., are on the rise for the first time in several decades, largely because of the increase in drug overdoses, the majority of which are due to prescription opioids. The overarching goal of this proposal is to strengthen these prevention efforts by gaining a more granular understanding of social determinants of health, patient behaviors, clinical settings, and clinical factors that impact medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) access and outcomes. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is David Carrell.

Systematic Implementation of Patient-Centered Care for Alcohol Use Trial: Beyond Referral to Treatment

A 5-year, $4,024,879 grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Major goals: The Systematic Implementation of Patient-centered Care for Alcohol Use Trial is a pragmatic, cluster-randomized, effectiveness-implementation trial testing 2 interventions to systematically implement shared decision-making with primary care patients with alcohol use disorders (AUD): a primary care intervention and a centralized intervention. The trial randomizes 30 primary care clinics to 1 of 3 approaches to managing AUD: (1) usual care, (2) a primary care intervention that uses state-of-the-art implementation interventions to systematically encourage primary care providers to offer routine shared decision-making for AUD, and (3) a centralized intervention that systematically offers outreach and shared decision-making for AUD by a social worker. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigators are Kathy Bradley and Gwen Lapham.

Whose Depression Are We Measuring? Considering the Role of Place on Black Women’s Depression Outcomes

A 1-year, $217,372 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. Major goals: A diversity supplement to support Kanetha Wilson at the Kaiser Permanente Georgia Center for Health Research. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute lead investigator is Gregory Simon.

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.

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.

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.