KP Research Bank – The Next Chapter

As a KP Research Bank participant and reader of this newsletter, you know about our scientific accomplishments. Together, we’ve created a collection of medical records, blood and saliva specimens, genomic data, and health questionnaire data from more than 400,000 Kaiser Permanente members — including you — who have volunteered to participate in research.

While we will continue to invite Kaiser Permanente members to participate in the Research Bank, our mission is expanding. In the next few years our work will focus on using KP Research Bank data to advance precision medicine. This work could improve the quality and equity of care that Kaiser Permanente provides using genetic data to better predict disease risk and treatment options.

The road to routine use of precision medicine is long, so the research we do now may not pay off for years. But some Kaiser Permanente patients already benefit from precision medicine. For example, some members who are receiving cancer treatment benefit from genetic profiling of their tumor biopsy samples, which helps doctors choose the best treatment for them.

To promote the eventual use of precision medicine throughout Kaiser Permanente, the Research Bank will support research that will:

• Advance precision medicine, for example by developing polygenic risk scores that apply to people from all racial and ethnic backgrounds
• Answer questions such as: How can precision medicine improve care for people with many different types of conditions and diseases?
• Identify Kaiser Permanente members who might want to participate in clinical research and pilot programs on precision medicine

To see how the Research Bank is supporting this kind of research, please see the article in this newsletter about the work of Dr. Akinyemi Oni-Orisan.

Devin Absher, PhD
Vice President,
Kaiser Permanente Research