Kaiser Permanente will use its electronic health records and more than $54 million in grants over two years from the National Institutes of Health to conduct medical research in various fields.
The 22 grants are being funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Kaiser said in a news release. The grants cover several different projects, including a $25 million project to conduct genotyping on Kaiser members who are participating in the national Research Program on Genes, Environment and Health. Kaiser said it will link data from patients' EHRs, health surveys and disease registries in hopes that the information will help researchers study genetic and environmental influences on a range of health conditions.
Another $3.3 million of the funding will be used to create a national research database that organizes and leverages the organization's EHRs, according to Kaiser.
