60 years ago, Morris F. Collen, MD, recognized the potential of combining the power of information technology with clinical care and sophisticated data analytics. Since its inception in 1961, Kaiser Permanente’s Division of Research has become internationally respected for research that transforms health by discovering the key drivers of health and disease and identifying effective and efficient ways to deliver health care.
The 1960s: Creation of the Division of Research
Morris Collen, MD, becomes founding director of Medical Methods Research, later renamed the Division of Research, leading from 1961 to 1979.
The Division of Research receives its first grant from the U.S. Public Health Service to automate the multiphasic exam.
The Division’s Edmund (Ted) Van Brunt, MD, pilots a computer-based patient medical record system with a database that supports both patient care and health services research. Kaiser Permanente becomes one of a handful of places in the world to start this pioneering work.
The 1970s: Early pioneers of an integrated medical record
Investigators including Ted Van Brunt, MD, Morris Collen, MD, and colleagues publish a study about a “pilot medical information system” providing services for limited categories of patient data. This would go on to be known as the electronic health records system.
The 1980s: A major research operation in epidemiology
The Division opens a research clinic to support the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study — a longitudinal study of heart health and disparities that continues to this day and has resulted in more than 600 published papers.
The 1990s: Ushering in large-scale collaborative research
Morris Collen, MD, is honored by the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) as the first recipient of the highest honor it bestows, the Morris F. Collen Award of Excellence for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Medical Informatics.
The 2000s: A new era of DOR collaborations
A DOR research team publishes a study in the New England Journal of Medicine that shows chronic kidney disease increases a person’s risk of heart disease, stroke, or death.
The Research Program on Genes, Environment and Health (RPGEH), now one of the largest such research projects in the United States, is established to examine genetic and environmental factors that influence a wide variety of common diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and depression.
Learn more about Kaiser Permanente unveiling groundbreaking genetic research program
The 2010s: Mentoring the next generation
Tracy Lieu, MD, MPH, becomes fifth director of DOR, leading from 2012 to the present.
Learn more about DOR nameing Tracy Lieu, MD, MPH Its Fifth Director
The Delivery Science Fellowship Program is established to train postdoctoral fellows on identifying and implementing best practices for delivering care to diverse populations. The program has since attracted nationwide interest.
A celebration of life takes place upon the death of Morrie Collen on September 27, 2014.
DOR launches Physician Researcher Program with a mission to cultivate the research that drives evidence-based medicine.
Recognizing the importance of early multiphasic exams, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History takes ownership of some DOR punch cards to help share an important part of our country’s health care history.
The Permanente Medical Group and DOR establish the Delivery Science and Applied Research (DARE) program to foster collaborations between clinician-investigators and DOR scientists. DARE provides infrastructure, connections, and analytic support to clinician-researchers for answering questions that will change care.
Kaiser Permanente data helps create street-level view of the health Impacts of air pollution in Oakland.
The 2020s: Tackling new health care mysteries
Division of Research publishes study in JAMA showing wide age range of adults hospitalized with COVID-19, dispelling idea only older adults were being hospitalized with COVID-19.
The Vaccine Study Center joins the clinical trial for Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine, enrolling adults and later teenagers aged 16 and 17, adolescents aged 12 to 15, and children aged 6 to 11.
DOR predictive analytics specialists teamed up with nursing and hospital leaders to create the Advance Alert Monitor system, which identifies hospital patients at risk of rapid deterioration. In an analysis published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the system is associated with lower mortality.
Learn more about real-time in-hospital alerts associated with lower patient mortality
Health systems could use data from routine clinical care to identify the onset of upcoming COVID-19 surges as many as 6 weeks before they occur, researchers reported in a study published in BMJ Open.
A study in the New England Journal of Medicine found a method to remove race from controversial kidney function equations without losing accuracy. The findings helped inform new National Kidney Foundation-American Society of Nephrology Task Force guidelines on evaluating kidney function.
Kaiser Permanente researcher will co-lead $32.7 million colorectal cancer screening study to focus on older adults with low-risk polyps.
Researchers published findings in JAMA Internal Medicine showing that COVID-19 infection more than doubled the risk of severe complications during pregnancy.
The National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, selected Kaiser Permanente Northern California as one of the institutions that will help launch the new Cancer Screening Research Network to evaluate emerging technologies for cancer screening, with the goal of reducing cancer-related illnesses and deaths.
