Rethinking MS treatment: Why less may be more
For years, people living with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) have depended on powerful medications to keep their disease under control. One of the most effective treatments has been rituximab, a therapy that works by depleting B cells, which are the immune cells that drive inflammation ...
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Staying active during pregnancy helps keep postpartum weight off
For years, researchers have known that many people struggle to lose the weight they gain during pregnancy. Up to 1 in 4 individuals retain at least 10 pounds 1 to 2 years after giving birth, and this ...
Wildfire smoke studies reveal differing health risks
Wildfire smoke has increasingly been recognized as a serious public health threat. Now, 2 new Kaiser Permanente studies in Southern California have examined how health risks for both young and old people ...
Researcher Dr. Hui Zhou’s joyful New Year’s Day walk
On a rainy New Year’s morning in Pasadena, Dr. Hui Zhou, a research scientist with the Department of Research & Evaluation, walked alongside Kaiser Permanente’s float, “A Better Idea ...
Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center to study experimental stroke drug
June 4, 2021Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center will conduct a multi-centered, randomized, Phase 3 research study to learn if the experimental drug recombinant Factor VIIa (rFVIIA), a protein that our body makes, can be used to decrease bleeding in the brain of patients who suffer sudden bleeding in the brain, also called intracerebral hemorrhage. The study entitled ...Read more...Marking Clinical Trials Day 2021 with gratitude
May 20, 2021On this day—May 20, 2021, aka Clinical Trials Day—we have more reasons than ever to celebrate the Kaiser Permanente Southern California clinical trials team. We began our COVID-19 clinical trials research with the remdesivir trial in March 2020. We were a top enroller in that study. Since then, our clinical trials program has participated in 9 ...Read more...Kaiser Permanente members have higher survival rate after cancer diagnosis
May 14, 2021Among insured cancer patients in Southern California, those who were diagnosed and treated at Kaiser Permanente, an integrated health care organization, had better survival rates, especially Black and Latinx patients, according to Kaiser Permanente research published in The American Journal of Managed Care. “Kaiser Permanente is committed to finding and addressing health care inequities,” said the ...Read more...COVID-19 outcomes are more severe for people of color
May 4, 2021A new Kaiser Permanente study published in Annals of Internal Medicine found that people of color were more likely to be hospitalized and to receive intensive-level care for COVID-19 compared to white patients even after adjusting for known health risk factors such as obesity, diabetes, and other conditions The study was among the first to show that these ...Read more...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...