Heart disease is the leading cause of death for Americans. Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI) scientists are working to understand how to reduce our risk of heart attacks, stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases throughout life.
Addressing risk factors, improving diagnosis, and exploring how medications, genes, and everyday life affect our cardiovascular health at different ages and stages are central to this work — as is translating research findings into practical, personalized care.
“We’ve found that helping patients and health care teams work together on personalized care plans is the best path to lifelong heart health,” says Beverly Green, MD, MPH, whose recent work has focused on improving the diagnosis of high blood pressure.
Additional focus areas for KPWHRI scientists include exploring the impact of cardiovascular diseases on other health conditions — and vice versa. Recently, this has led researchers Sascha Dublin, MD, PhD, and Laura B. Harrington, PhD, MPH, to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular health.
Below are other research highlights from KPWHRI’s cardiovascular health scientists (please visit their bios to learn more):
Teumer A, Chaker L, Groeneweg S, Li Y, Di Munno C, Barbieri C, Schultheiss UT, Traglia M, Ahluwalia TS, Akiyama M, Appel EVR, Arking DE, Arnold A, Astrup A, Beekman M, Beilby JP, Bekaert S, Boerwinkle E, Brown SJ, De Buyzere M, Campbell PJ, Ceresini +++. Genome-wide analyses identify a role for SLC17A4 and AADAT in thyroid hormone regulation. Nat Commun. 2018;9(1):4455. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-06356-1. PubMed
Ezaz G, Leffler DA, Beach S, Schoen RE, Crockett SD, Gourevitch RA, Rose S, Morris M, Carrell DS, Greer JB, Mehrotra A. Association between endoscopist personality and rate of adenoma detection. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2018 Oct 13. pii: S1542-3565(18)31140-6. doi: 10.1016/j.cgh.2018.10.019. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Hajek C, Guo X, Yao J, Hai Y, Johnson WC, Frazier-Wood AC, Post WS, Psaty BM, Taylor KD, Rotter JI. Coronary heart disease genetic risk score predicts cardiovascular disease risk in men, not women. Circ Genom Precis Med. 2018 Oct;11(10):e002324. doi: 10.1161/CIRCGEN.118.002324. PubMed
Vojinovic D, Adams HH, Jian X, Yang Q, Smith AV, Bis JC, Teumer A, Scholz M, Armstrong NJ, Hofer E, Saba Y, Luciano M, Bernard M, Trompet S, Yang J, Gillespie NA, van der Lee SJ, Neumann A, Ahmad S, Andreassen OA, Ames D, Amin N, Arfanakis K, Bastin ME, Becker DM, Beiser AS, Beyer F, Brodaty H, Bryan RN, Bülow R, Dale AM, De Jager PL, Deary IJ, DeCarli C, Fleischman DA, Gottesman RF, van der Grond J, Gudnason V, Harris TB, Homuth G, Knopman DS, Kwok JB, Lewis CE, Li S, Loeffler M, Lopez OL, Maillard P, El Marroun H, Mather KA, Mosley TH, Muetzel RL, Nauck M, Nyquist PA, Panizzon MS, Pausova Z, Psaty BM, Rice K, Rotter JI, Royle N, Satizabal CL, Schmidt R, Schofield PR, Schreiner PJ, Sidney S, Stott DJ, Thalamuthu A, Uitterlinden AG, Valdés Hernández MC, Vernooij MW, Wen W, White T, Witte AV, Wittfeld K, Wright MJ, Yanek LR, Tiemeier H, Kremen WS, Bennett DA, Jukema JW, Paus T, Wardlaw JM, Schmidt H, Sachdev PS, Villringer A, Grabe HJ, Longstreth WT, van Duijn CM, Launer LJ, Seshadri S, Ikram MA, Fornage M. Genome-wide association study of 23,500 individuals identifies 7 loci associated with brain ventricular volume. Nat Commun. 2018 Sep 26;9(1):3945. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-06234-w. PubMed
Evangelou E, Warren HR, Mosen-Ansorena D, Mifsud B, Pazoki R, Gao H, Ntritsos G, Dimou N, Cabrera CP, Karaman I, Ng FL, Evangelou M, Witkowska K, Tzanis E, Hellwege JN, Giri A, Velez Edwards DR, Sun YV, Cho K, Gaziano JM, Wilson PWF, Tsao PS, Kovesdy CP, Esko T, Mägi R, Milani L, Almgren P, Boutin T, Debette S, Ding J, Giulianini F, Holliday EG, Jackson AU, Li-Gao R, Lin WY, Luan J, Mangino M, Oldmeadow C, Prins BP, Qian Y, Sargurupremraj M, Shah N, Surendran P, Thériault S, Verweij N, Willems SM, Zhao JH, Amouyel P, Connell J, de Mutsert R, Doney ASF, Farrall M, Menni C, Morris AD, Noordam R, Paré G, Poulter NR, Shields DC, Stanton A, Thom S, Abecasis G, Amin N, Arking DE, Ayers KL, Barbieri CM, Batini C, Bis JC, Blake T, Bochud M, Boehnke M, Boerwinkle E, Boomsma DI, Bottinger EP, Braund PS, Brumat M, Campbell A, Campbell H, Chakravarti A, Chambers JC, Chauhan G, Ciullo M, Cocca M, Collins F, Cordell HJ, Davies G, Borst MH, Geus EJ, Deary IJ, Deelen J, Del Greco M F, Demirkale CY, Dörr M, Ehret GB, Elosua R, Enroth S, Erzurumluoglu AM, Ferreira T, Frånberg M, Franco OH, Gandin I, Gasparini P, Giedraitis V, Gieger C, Girotto G, Goel A, Gow AJ, Gudnason V, Guo X, Gyllensten U, Hamsten A, Harris TB, Harris SE, Hartman CA, Havulinna AS, Hicks AA, Hofer E, Hofman A, Hottenga JJ, Huffman JE, Hwang SJ, Ingelsson E, James A, Jansen R, Jarvelin MR, Joehanes R, Johansson Å, Johnson AD, Joshi PK, Jousilahti P, Jukema JW, Jula A, Kähönen M, Kathiresan S, Keavney BD, Khaw KT, Knekt P, Knight J, Kolcic I, Kooner JS, Koskinen S, Kristiansson K, Kutalik Z, Laan M, Larson M, Launer LJ, Lehne B, Lehtimäki T, Liewald DCM, Lin L, Lind L, Lindgren CM, Liu Y, Loos RJF, Lopez LM, Lu Y, Lyytikäinen LP, Mahajan A, Mamasoula C, Marrugat J, Marten J, Milaneschi Y, Morgan A, Morris AP, Morrison AC, Munson PJ, Nalls MA, Nandakumar P, Nelson CP, Niiranen T, Nolte IM, Nutile T, Oldehinkel AJ, Oostra BA, O'Reilly PF, Org E, Padmanabhan S, Palmas W, Palotie A, Pattie A, Penninx BWJH, Perola M, Peters A, Polasek O, Pramstaller PP, Nguyen QT, Raitakari OT, Ren M, Rettig R, Rice K, Ridker PM, Ried JS, Riese H, Ripatti S, Robino A, Rose LM, Rotter JI, Rudan I, Ruggiero D, Saba Y, Sala CF, Salomaa V, Samani NJ, Sarin AP, Schmidt R, Schmidt H, Shrine N, Siscovick D, Smith AV, Snieder H, Sõber S, Sorice R, Starr JM, Stott DJ, Strachan DP, Strawbridge RJ, Sundström J, Swertz MA, Taylor KD, Teumer A, Tobin MD, Tomaszewski M, Toniolo D, Traglia M, Trompet S, Tuomilehto J, Tzourio C, Uitterlinden AG, Vaez A, van der Most PJ, van Duijn CM, Vergnaud AC, Verwoert GC, Vitart V, Völker U, Vollenweider P, Vuckovic D, Watkins H, Wild SH, Willemsen G, Wilson JF, Wright AF, Yao J, Zemunik T, Zhang W, Attia JR, Butterworth AS, Chasman DI, Conen D, Cucca F, Danesh J, Hayward C, Howson JMM, Laakso M, Lakatta EG, Langenberg C, Melander O, Mook-Kanamori DO, Palmer CNA, Risch L, Scott RA, Scott RJ, Sever P, Spector TD, van der Harst P, Wareham NJ, Zeggini E, Levy D, Munroe PB, Newton-Cheh C, Brown MJ, Metspalu A, Hung AM, O'Donnell CJ, Edwards TL; Million Veteran Program, Psaty BM, Tzoulaki I, Barnes MR, Wain LV, Elliott P, Caulfield MJ. Genetic analysis of over 1 million people identifies 535 new loci associated with blood pressure traits. Nat Genet. 2018 Oct;50(10):1412-1425. doi: 10.1038/s41588-018-0205-x. Epub 2018 Sep 17. PubMed
![]() Sascha Dublin, MD, PhDSenior Investigator |
![]() Beverly B. Green, MD, MPHSenior Investigator |
![]() Laura Harrington, PhD, MPHAssociate Investigator |
![]() Ellen O'Meara, PhDPrincipal Collaborative Scientist |
![]() Nicole M. Gatto, PhD, MPHPrincipal Collaborative Scientist |
![]() Meagan C. Brown, PhD, MPHAssistant Investigator |
James Floyd, MD, MS
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology
University of Washington
Susan Heckbert, MD, PhD
University of Washington (UW) Department of Epidemiology; UW Cardiovascular Health Research Unit
Nicholas L. Smith, PhD, MPH
UW Professor, Epidemiology, Cardiovascular Health Research Unit
Director, Seattle Epidemiology and Information Resource Center, VA Puget Sound Health Care System