Department of Research & Evaluation News

Jaejin An, PhD, was awarded the Early Career Investigator of the Year award at this year’s Health Care Systems Research Network conference held this month in St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. An is a pharmacoepidemiologist and cardiovascular outcomes researcher for the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Department of Research & Evaluation whose work focuses on disease management, and medication utilization and adherence.

“We are very proud of Dr. An,” said Kristi Reynolds, PhD, MPH, the director of the Department’s Division of Epidemiologic Research. “This well-deserved recognition highlights her expertise, exceptional contributions to advancing health care system research, and her commitment to collaboration.”

Dr. Michael Horberg, the Executive Director, Kaiser Permanente Mid-Atlantic Permanente Research Institute presented the award to Dr. An on April 9, 2025, at the Health Care Systems Research Network State of the Network, Annual Award and Inaugural Founders’ Award Presentations session.

She won for leading research presented at the conference titled “Blood Pressure Outcomes after Sodium–Glucose Cotransporter 2 Inhibitors vs. Other Diabetes Medication Use in Adults with Type 2 Diabetes. The abstract was reviewed on overall quality as well as specific criteria including research abstract quality, relevance and originality, quality of science, and impact, generalizability, and scalability. Organizers said this year, the pool of candidates was exceedingly large.

In this study, the researchers conducted a comparative effectiveness study in adults with type 2 diabetes and treated hypertension from 6 integrated health care systems in California, Hawaii, Minnesota, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin from electronic health records dating 2014 to 2021.

The research looked at patients with type 2 diabetes and treated hypertension and the effect of different types of diabetes drugs on blood pressure. This study was particularly relevant as many people with diabetes also have high blood pressure at the same time.

• The main study interests were sodium–glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) medications, which work by preventing the kidneys from reabsorbing excess glucose back into the bloodstream, instead allowing it to be excreted in the urine.
• The two comparator drugs were glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs), which are medications that work by mimicking the natural hormone that helps regulate blood sugar levels, insulin release, and appetite; and sulfonylureas, which have been widely used for diabetes by stimulating the pancreas to release more insulin.

The study found that the use of SGLT2i medications lowered blood pressure more effectively and helped more patients achieve their blood pressure goals than the GLP-1RAs or sulfonylureas.

Co-authors from Kaiser Permanente Southern California included Liang Ni, MPH, Cecilia Portugal, MPH, and John P. Martin, MD. Additional co-authors were from the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine; Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Division of Research; Kaiser Permanente Center for Integrated Health Care Research, HealthPartners Institute for Medical Education and Research; International Diabetes Center, HealthPartners Institute; Henry Ford Health; Enterprise Pharmacy, Geisinger; Center for Pharmacy Innovation and Outcomes, Geisinger; Novo Nordisk; and University of California, Berkeley.