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):
Merino J, Guasch-Ferré M, Ellervik C, Dashti HS, Sharp SJ, Wu P, Overvad K, Sarnowski C, Kuokkanen M, Lemaitre RN, Justice AE, Ericson U, Braun KVE, Mahendran Y, Frazier-Wood AC, Sun D, Chu AY, Tanaka T, Luan J, Hong J, Tjønneland A, Ding M, Lundqvist A, Mukamal K, Rohde R, Schulz CA, Franco OH, Grarup N, Chen YI, Bazzano L, Franks PW, Buring JE, Langenberg C, Liu CT, Hansen T, Jensen MK, Sääksjärvi K, Psaty BM, Young KL, Hindy G, Sandholt CH, Ridker PM, Ordovas JM, Meigs JB, Pedersen O, Kraft P, Perola M, North KE, Orho-Melander M, Voortman T, Toft U, Rotter JI, Qi L, Forouhi NG, Mozaffarian D, Sørensen TIA, Stampfer MJ, Männistö S, Selvin E, Imamura F, Salomaa V, Hu FB, Wareham NJ, Dupuis J, Smith CE, Kilpeläinen TO, Chasman DI, Florez JC. Quality of dietary fat and genetic risk of type 2 diabetes: individual participant data meta-analysis. BMJ. 2019;366:l4292. doi: 10.1136/bmj.l4292. PubMed
Glessner JT, Li J, Desai A, Palmer M, Kim D, Lucas AM, Chang X, Connolly JJ, Almoguera B, Harley JB, Jarvik GP, Ritchie MD, Sleiman PMA, Roden DM, Crosslin D, Hakonarson H. CNV association of diverse clinical phenotypes from eMERGE reveals novel disease biology underlying cardiovascular disease. Int J Cardiol. 2019 Jul 19. pii: S0167-5273(19)30191-3. doi: 10.1016/j.ijcard.2019.07.058. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Cheadle A, Rosaschi M, Burden D, Ferguson M, Greaves B, Houston L, McClendon J, Minkoff J, Jones M, Schwartz P, Nudelman J, Maddux-Gonzalez M. A community-wide collaboration to reduce cardiovascular disease risk: the Hearts of Sonoma County initiative. Prev Chronic Dis. 2019;16:E89. doi: 10.5888/pcd16.180596. PubMed
Lemaitre RN, Jensen PN, Hoofnagle A, McKnight B, Fretts AM, King IB, Siscovick DS, Psaty BM, Heckbert SR, Mozaffarian D, Sotoodehnia N. Plasma ceramides and sphingomyelins in relation to heart failure risk. Circ Heart Fail. 2019 Jul;12(7):e005708. doi: 10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.118.005708. Epub 2019 Jul 12. PubMed
Floyd JS, Bloch KM, Brody JA, Maroteau C, Siddiqui MK, Gregory R, Carr DF, Molokhia M, Liu X, Bis JC, Ahmed A, Liu X, Hallberg P, Yue QY, Magnusson PKE, Brisson D, Wiggins KL, Morrison AC, Khoury E, McKeigue P, Stricker BH, Lapeyre-Mestre M, Heckbert SR, Gallagher AM, Chinoy H, Gibbs RA, Bondon-Guitton E, Tracy R, Boerwinkle E, Gaudet D, Conforti A, van Staa T, Sitlani CM, Rice KM, Maitland-van der Zee AH, Wadelius M, Morris AP, Pirmohamed M, Palmer CAN, Psaty BM, Alfirevic A; PREDICTION-ADR Consortium and EUDRAGENE. Pharmacogenomics of statin-related myopathy: meta-analysis of rare variants from whole-exome sequencing. PLoS One. 2019 Jun 26;14(6):e0218115. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0218115. eCollection 2019. PubMed
Sascha Dublin, MD, PhDSenior Investigator |
Beverly B. Green, MD, MPHSenior Investigator |
Laura Harrington, PhD, MPHAssistant 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