Research as a Change Agent to Improve Care and Outcomes: The Kaiser Permanente Northern California Experience

Abstract:

Improving population-level quality of care and clinical outcomes remains a daunting challenge nationally. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Go has developed an internationally-recognized research program within Kaiser Permanente Northern California, a large integrated healthcare delivery system providing comprehensive care for >4 million members that is supported by a state-of-the-art electronic health record system. His research program has expanded from an initial focus on the epidemiology of cardiovascular and kidney-related conditions to systematic evaluation of “real world” quality of care and associated outcomes to spearheading the development and implementation of system-wide efforts to improve the conduct of clinical trials and research studies. Through the strategic use of research in alignment with key clinical and operational stakeholders within complex healthcare delivery systems like Kaiser Permanente, Dr. Go and colleagues have helped create important infrastructure and processes that support the ability to accelerate large-scale change internally, as well as externally through successful multi-institutional collaborations.