Cardiovascular Health

“One in four deaths in the United States is attributed to heart disease. Our researchers study how behavior, environment, and genetics affect heart health and how screening and treatment can reduce risk.”

Laura B. Harrington, PhD, MPH
Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute Assistant Investigator

Research overview

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):

  • In 2016 Dr. Green, a senior investigator, launched the BP-CHECK study, which aims to find the easiest, most accurate way to diagnose high blood pressure. With a $2.8 million award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), the study compares blood pressure readings taken in clinic, at home, and at validated blood pressure kiosks to the 24-hour blood pressure test that is currently considered the gold standard for diagnosing hypertension.
     
  • Dr. Dublin, a senior investigator, explores many different facets of cardiovascular disease in her work, including risk factors for atrial fibrillation, the effect of medications on cardiovascular disease, and the relationship between cardiovascular disease and other conditions, such as dementia. Managing cardiovascular risk factors in pregnancy — such as high blood pressure and diabetes — is a particular interest.
     
  • Dr. Harrington, an assistant investigator, is a cardiovascular epidemiologist whose research aims to improve understanding of modifiable cardiovascular risk factors, particularly among older women. Currently, she is leading a study exploring the relationship between physical activity, sedentary behavior, and the risk of venous thromboembolism (blood clots that form predominantly in the veins of the legs or lungs). In addition to this work, Dr. Harrington conducts research in the areas of recurrent cardiovascular event risk, cardiovascular health in relation to cognitive decline and dementia risk in later life, and pharmacologic exposures in relation to cardiovascular event risk, with a particular focus on risk factors for venous thromboembolism.
     
  • Senior Investigator Michael L. Parchman, MD, MPH, focuses on implementing evidence-based cardiovascular disease care into primary care settings. He led the 4-year Healthy Hearts Northwest trial, an EvidenceNOW initiative that helped smaller primary care practices in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho adopt evidence-based approaches to improving cardiovascular care outcomes. The trial continues to produce findings of importance.
     
  • The work of Ellen O'Meara, PhD, a senior research associate, centers on the epidemiology of common and important health conditions in the United States, including cardiovascular disease. Her collaborative research has included studies exploring the risk factors and outcomes of heart disease and stroke. Recent work includes research on quality improvement aimed at controlling hypertension at small primary care practices.

Recent publications on Cardiovascular Health

Psaty BM, Merrill JO. Addressing the opioid epidemic - opportunities in the postmarketing setting. N Engl J Med. 2017;376(16):1502-1504. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp1614972.  PubMed

Christophersen IE, Rienstra M, Roselli C, Yin X, Geelhoed B, Barnard J, Lin H, Arking DE, Smith AV, Albert CM, Chaffin M, Tucker NR, Li M, Klarin D, Bihlmeyer NA, Low SK, Weeke PE, Müller-Nurasyid M, Smith JG, Brody JA, Niemeijer MN, Dörr M, Trompet S, Huffman J, Gustafsson S, Schurmann C, Kleber ME, Lyytikäinen LP, Seppälä I, Malik R, Horimoto ARVR, Perez M, Sinisalo J, Aeschbacher S, Thériault S, Yao J, Radmanesh F, Weiss S, Teumer A, Choi SH, Weng LC, Clauss S, Deo R, Rader DJ, Shah SH, Sun A, Hopewell JC, Debette S, Chauhan G, Yang Q, Worrall BB, Paré G, Kamatani Y, Hagemeijer YP, Verweij N, Siland JE, Kubo M, Smith JD, Van Wagoner DR, Bis JC, Perz S, Psaty BM, Ridker PM, Magnani JW, Harris TB, Launer LJ, Shoemaker MB, Padmanabhan S, Haessler J, Bartz TM, Waldenberger M, Lichtner P, Arendt M, Krieger JE, Kähönen M, Risch L, Mansur AJ, Peters A, Smith BH, Lind L, Scott SA, Lu Y, Bottinger EB, Hernesniemi J, Lindgren CM, Wong JA, Huang J, Eskola M, Morris AP, Ford I, Reiner AP, Delgado G, Chen LY, Chen YI, Sandhu RK, Li M, Boerwinkle E, Eisele L, Lannfelt L, Rost N, Anderson CD, Taylor KD, Campbell A, Magnusson PK, Porteous D, Hocking LJ, Vlachopoulou E, Pedersen NL, Nikus K, Orho-Melander M, Hamsten A, Heeringa J, Denny JC, Kriebel J, Darbar D, Newton-Cheh C, Shaffer C, Macfarlane PW, Heilmann-Heimbach S, Almgren P, Huang PL, Sotoodehnia N, Soliman EZ, Uitterlinden AG, Hofman A, Franco OH, Völker U, Jöckel KH, Sinner MF, Lin HJ, Guo X; METASTROKE Consortium of the ISGC.; Neurology Working Group of the CHARGE Consortium., Dichgans M, Ingelsson E, Kooperberg C, Melander O, Loos RJF, Laurikka J, Conen D, Rosand J, van der Harst P, Lokki ML, Kathiresan S, Pereira A, Jukema JW, Hayward C, Rotter JI, März W, Lehtimäki T, Stricker BH, Chung MK, Felix SB, Gudnason V, Alonso A, Roden DM, Kääb S, Chasman DI, Heckbert SR, Benjamin EJ, Tanaka T, Lunetta KL, Lubitz SA, Ellinor PT; AFGen Consortium. Large-scale analyses of common and rare variants identify 12 new loci associated with atrial fibrillation. Nat Genet. 2017 Apr 17. doi: 10.1038/ng.3843. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed

Wild PS, Felix JF, Schillert A, Teumer A, Chen MH, Leening MJ, Völker U, Großmann V, Brody JA, Irvin MR, Shah SJ, Pramana S, Lieb W, Schmidt R, Stanton AV, Malzahn D, Smith AV, Sundström J, Minelli C, Ruggiero D, Lyytikäinen LP, Tiller D, Smith JG, Monnereau C, Di Tullio MR, Musani SK, Morrison AC, Pers TH, Morley M, Kleber ME, Aragam J, Benjamin EJ, Bis JC, Bisping E, Broeckel U, Cheng S, Deckers JW, Del Greco M F, Edelmann F, Fornage M, Franke L, Friedrich N, Harris TB, Hofer E, Hofman A, Huang J, Hughes AD, Kähönen M, Investigators K, Kruppa J, Lackner KJ, Lannfelt L, Laskowski R, Launer LJ, Leosdottir M, Lin H, Lindgren CM, Loley C, MacRae CA, Mascalzoni D, Mayet J, Medenwald D, Morris AP, Müller C, Müller-Nurasyid M, Nappo S, Nilsson PM, Nuding S, Nutile T, Peters A, Pfeufer A, Pietzner D, Pramstaller PP, Raitakari OT, Rice KM, Rivadeneira F, Rotter JI, Ruohonen ST, Sacco RL, Samdarshi TE, Schmidt H, Sharp AS, Shields DC, Sorice R, Sotoodehnia N, Stricker BH, Surendran P, Thom S, Töglhofer AM, Uitterlinden AG, Wachter R, Völzke H, Ziegler A, Münzel T, März W, Cappola TP, Hirschhorn JN, Mitchell GF, Smith NL, Fox ER, Dueker ND, Jaddoe VW, Melander O, Russ M, Lehtimäki T, Ciullo M, Hicks AA, Lind L, Gudnason V, Pieske B, Barron AJ, Zweiker R, Schunkert H, Ingelsson E, Liu K, Arnett DK, Psaty BM, Blankenberg S, Larson MG, Felix SB, Franco OH, Zeller T, Vasan RS, Dörr M. Large-scale genome-wide analysis identifies genetic variants associated with cardiac structure and function. J Clin Invest. 2017 Apr 10. pii: 84840. doi: 10.1172/JCI84840. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed

Jensen MK, Jensen RA, Mukamal KJ, Guo X, Yao J, Sun Q, Cornelis M, Liu Y, Chen MH, Kizer JR, Djoussé L, Siscovick DS, Psaty BM, Zmuda JM, Rotter JI, Garcia M, Harris T, Chen I, Goodarzi MO, Nalls MA, Keller M, Arnold AM, Newman A, Hoogeeven RC, Rexrode KM, Rimm EB, Hu FB, Vasan RS, Katz R, Pankow JS, Ix JH. Detection of genetic loci associated with plasma fetuin-A: a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies from the CHARGE Consortium. Hum Mol Genet. 2017 Apr 3. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddx091. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed

van den Berg ME, Warren HR, Cabrera CP, Verweij N, Mifsud B, Haessler J, Bihlmeyer NA, Fu YP, Weiss S, Lin HJ, Grarup N, Li-Gao R, Pistis G, Shah N, Brody JA, Müller-Nurasyid M, Lin H, Mei H, Smith AV, Lyytikäinen LP, Hall LM, van Setten J, Trompet S, Prins BP, Isaacs A, Radmanesh F, Marten J, Entwistle A, Kors JA, Silva CT, Alonso A, Bis JC, de Boer R, de Haan HG, de Mutsert R, Dedoussis G, Dominiczak AF, Doney AS, Ellinor PT, Eppinga RN, Felix SB, Guo X, Hagemeijer Y, Hansen T, Harris TB, Heckbert SR, Huang PL, Hwang SJ, Kähönen M, Kanters JK, Kolcic I, Launer LJ, Li M, Yao J, Linneberg A, Liu S, Macfarlane PW, Mangino M, Morris AD, Mulas A, Murray AD, Nelson CP, Orrú M, Padmanabhan S, Peters A, Porteous DJ, Poulter N, Psaty BM, Qi L, Raitakari OT, Rivadeneira F, Roselli C, Rudan I, Sattar N, Sever P, Sinner MF, Soliman EZ, Spector TD, Stanton AV, Stirrups KE, Taylor KD, Tobin MD, Uitterlinden A, Vaartjes I, Hoes AW, van der Meer P, Völker U, Waldenberger M, Xie Z, Zoledziewska M, Tinker A, Polasek O, Rosand J, Jamshidi Y, van Duijn CM, Zeggini E, Wouter Jukema J, Asselbergs FW, Samani NJ, Lehtimäki T, Gudnason V, Wilson J, Lubitz SA, Kääb S, Sotoodehnia N, Caulfield MJ, Palmer CN, Sanna S, Mook-Kanamori DO, Deloukas P, Pedersen O, Rotter JI, Dörr M, O'Donnell CJ, Hayward C, Arking DE, Kooperberg C, van der Harst P, Eijgelsheim M, Stricker BH, Munroe PB. Discovery of novel heart rate-associated loci using the Exome Chip. Hum Mol Genet. 2017 Jun 15;26(12):2346-2363. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddx113. PubMed

Researchers in Cardiovascular Health

Sascha Dublin, MD, PhD

Senior Investigator
206-287-2870
Sascha.Dublin@kp.org

Curriculum vitae (CV)

Beverly B. Green, MD, MPH

Senior Investigator
206-287-2997
Bev.B.Green@kp.org

Curriculum vitae (CV)

Laura Harrington, PhD, MPH

Assistant Investigator
206-287-2066
Laura.B.Harrington@kp.org

Curriculum vitae (CV)

Ellen O'Meara, PhD

Principal Collaborative Scientist
206-287-2938
Ellen.S.O'Meara@kp.org

Curriculum vitae (CV)

Nicole M. Gatto, PhD, MPH

Principal Collaborative Scientist
Nicole.M.Gatto@kp.org

Curriculum vitae (CV)

Meagan C. Brown, PhD, MPH

Assistant Investigator
Meagan.C.Brown@kp.org

Curriculum vitae (CV)

 

Affiliate researchers

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