Bariatric surgery reduces costs for patients with type 2 diabetes
A Kaiser Permanente found that bariatric surgery reduced health care costs for adults with type 2 diabetes and obesity. The study was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in February 2025. “The study shows that both Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) and sleeve gastrectomy (SG) help reduce ...
Featured News
Research leads to finding ways to improve outcomes for heart failure patients with chronic kidney disease
Research by physicians at the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center is helping patients with heart failure to transition more smoothly and safely to dialysis if they develop chronic kidney disease. ...
Medicaid enrollees less vaccinated during pregnancy across US
Most individuals in the United States who are pregnant are not getting the vaccines that could protect them — and their babies — from COVID-19, flu, and whooping cough, a new study shows. This is ...
Intensive blood pressure control and patients with chronic kidney disease
The benefits of intensive blood pressure shown in the Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT) also helps patients with chronic kidney disease, according to new research led by Kaiser Permanente ...
Five questions for … Dr. Stanley Xu
November 10, 2021Dr. Stanley Xu is a senior research scientist biostatistician in the Division of Biostatistics Research in the Department of Research & Evaluation. He has served as principal investigator, co-investigator, and lead biostatistician on randomized trials and observational studies funded by the National Institutes of Health, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Centers for Disease Control ...Read more...Kaiser Permanente members invited to join flu vaccine study
October 27, 2021The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has selected Kaiser Permanente Southern California as a new site in its U.S. Flu Vaccine Effectiveness network. Kaiser Permanente Southern California is inviting its members to participate in a nationwide study of how well flu and COVID-19 vaccines are working. It is one of 2 new sites selected by ...Read more...New study looking at millions of vaccinated and unvaccinated people found no increased risk of death among COVID-19 vaccine recipients
October 22, 2021COVID-19 vaccine recipients had lower non-COVID-19 death rates than people who weren’t vaccinated, according to Kaiser Permanente research published Oct. 22, 2021 in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. “Despite numerous studies showing the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, some people have remained hesitant to get vaccinated,” said lead author Stanley ...Read more...Kaiser Permanente study to assess COVID-19 antibodies in employees, physicians
October 22, 2021A physician investigator in the Southern California Permanente Medical Group received a grant to study antibody responses to COVID-19 vaccination among health care workers. The study will also help learn more about the impact of booster vaccination and the rates of asymptomatic COVID-19 infection among the vaccinated. Kaiser Permanente Southern California is inviting up to 2,000 ...Read more...Five questions for … Dr. Debbie Malden
October 19, 2021Debbie Malden, DPhil, MSc, is an epidemiologist with research experience in large-scale prospective cohort studies. Before joining Kaiser Permanente, Dr. Malden completed her DPhil at the University of Oxford, assessing risk factors for cardiovascular disease among a half million U.K. adults using both observational and genetic epidemiological techniques. In addition to her research on chronic disease, ...Read more...Sleep aids increase fracture risk in breast cancer survivors
October 8, 2021About 40% of breast cancer survivors use prescription medications to alleviate sleep problems, but these medications can increase their risk of bone fractures, according to research from Kaiser Permanente in Southern California published Sept. 29, 2021 in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment. For many of the 3.8 million breast cancer survivors living in the United States, getting ...Read more...COVID-19 delta variant associated with increased risk of severe disease
October 7, 2021Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente Southern California found that COVID-19 cases caused by the delta variant increased rapidly from April 15 to July 21, particularly among people ages 18 to 44. The study was published October 7, 2021, in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, known as MMWR. ...Read more...COVID-19 severity associated with air pollution from non-freeway traffic
October 7, 2021A study of Kaiser Permanente Southern California members diagnosed with COVID-19 found that patients who had recently lived in areas with higher levels of air pollution from non-freeway roadways had a higher risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes. “Our analysis suggests that traffic-related air pollution may be a contributor to the severity of COVID-19,” said the study’s ...Read more...Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness wanes over time
October 4, 2021A recent study led by Kaiser Permanente found the Pfizer-BioNTech, BNT162b2, mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine is highly effective against hospitalization for 6 months after full vaccination, even in the face of widespread transmission of the delta variant. The study was published in The Lancet. (An earlier draft of the study was previously posted on The Lancet ...Read more...5 questions for … Dr. Sarah Carter
September 15, 2021Sarah Carter, DPhil, MA, is a postdoctoral research fellow at Kaiser Permanente Southern California’s Department of Research & Evaluation. She completed her doctoral work at the University of Southampton in England, where she studied childbirth intervention in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS). She is currently studying pre- and perinatal maternal health, environmental exposures, ...Read more...