More than just a pretty space: What research tells us about parks
For many people, public parks are just a beautiful green space they drive by on their way to work. However, research has shown that parks play a crucial role in people’s physical activity, and the community’s health. By studying parks, researchers aim to understand how these public spaces enhance ...
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Five questions for Dr. Mingsum Lee
Mingsum Lee, MD, PhD, has been named as the 2025 Southern California Permanente Medical Group Physician Researcher of the Year. Commenting about her selection for the award, one nominator said Dr. Lee ...
Los Angeles wildfires increased virtual medical visits
In January 2025, when wildfires swept from the foothills above Los Angeles into the densely populated urban areas below, evacuations ensued and a thick layer of smoke spread across the region. Air quality ...
Predicting heart issues among breast cancer survivors
Researchers have developed a new risk calculation model to help predict the risks of heart problems for breast cancer survivors. Their research was published in JAMA Oncology in October 2025. “There ...
Celebrating our extraordinary nurses: During Nurses Week, all month, and throughout the year
May 4, 2021For National Nurses Week (May 6 to 12), Nurses Month, and Year of the Nurse, we celebrate the dedicated nurses who work in the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Department of Research & Evaluation. Nurses are a vital part of our research program. Most support clinical trials, where their relationship-building skills play an important part in helping ...Read more...5 questions for … Dr. Ana Florea
May 4, 2021Ana Florea, PhD, MPH, is an epidemiologist and post-doctoral research fellow with the Department of Research & Evaluation at Kaiser Permanente Southern California. She has special interests in vaccine safety and effectiveness, infectious diseases, cancer, and chronic kidney diseases. Currently, she is involved in projects studying shingles and Tdap vaccines. She works on projects involving ...Read more...New Kaiser Permanente COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effect Monitoring System launches
April 28, 2021A pilot program in Southern California will develop a vaccine side effect monitor that provides real-time insights to researchers and public health officials.Read more...Child vaccination rates recovering since pandemic’s early days
April 15, 2021The numbers of recommended vaccine doses, including measles vaccine, administered to children decreased dramatically after the declaration of a national state of emergency on March 13, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published in Pediatrics. While the decrease was lower and recovered in children under 2 years of age, ...Read more...Physical activity may reduce risk of poor COVID-19 outcomes
April 14, 2021A Kaiser Permanente study of nearly 50,000 people with COVID-19 suggested that regular physical activity provided strong protection from hospitalization, intensive care unit admission, and death. Even exercising inconsistently lowered the odds for severe COVID-19 outcomes when compared to people who were not active at all. The study, led by investigators in Kaiser Permanente Southern California, ...Read more...Most patients’ end-of-life care wishes are met
April 6, 2021The vast majority of patients make their end-of-life care wishes known to loved ones, and nearly 90% of the time those wishes were carried out according to Kaiser Permanente research published April 6, 2021, in the medical journal JAMA Network Open. “There is a common perception that people don’t often document or tell others about their ...Read more...KPSC teams with Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech to assess real-world effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines
March 30, 2021Researchers from Kaiser Permanente Southern California are collaborating with Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, the makers of the 2 first authorized COVID-19 vaccines, to study their vaccines’ effectiveness in real-world settings in preventing the disease and reducing its severity. Questions these studies will evaluate range from how long protection lasts to how well vaccines perform against variants ...Read more...New CIRT research projects aim to improve care
March 30, 2021The Care Improvement Research Team has awarded funds for 7 new research projects led by Southern California Permanente Medical Group scientists and physician researchers on COVID-19 and other health topics to help improve the care physicians provide for their patients. “This kind of research provides important new evidence to our frontline clinicians,” said Nancy Gin, MD, ...Read more...5 questions for … Dr. Shireen Fatemi
March 30, 2021Shireen Fatemi, MD, FACE, FACP, is an endocrinologist at the Kaiser Permanente Panorama City Medical Center. She was recently named the 2020 Southern California Permanente Medical Group Physician Researcher of the Year. Dr. Fatemi is the chief of Endocrinology in the Department of Internal Medicine and former assistant area medical director at Panorama City. She ...Read more...Residents lead advances in understanding of “broken heart” syndrome
March 29, 2021Research led by internal medicine residents at the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center has surfaced new insights into Takotsubo syndrome, a condition that closely resembles a heart attack. Most importantly, the findings link beta-blocker treatment with improved clinical outcomes. This project began in 2019, when residents Christopher Lau, MD, Sarah Chiu, MD, and Rohith Nayak, ...Read more...