Founded in 1964, the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research (CHR) is a single research center in the Northwest region.
With 41 investigators, 243 staff members, and annual revenues of nearly $45 million, we pursue a vigorous agenda of public health research within large, diverse populations. Most of our funding comes from federal grants and contracts. We also receive support from Kaiser Permanente’s Community Benefit Initiative, private foundations, and industry.
Our research scientists are a highly diverse and skilled group with specialties ranging from psychology to anthropology to economics to epidemiology. Centralized departments provide the infrastructure and expertise necessary to support our investigators as they write grant proposals, conduct studies, analyze data, and publish their findings.
Our close affiliation with the Kaiser Permanente delivery system allows us to conduct studies with real patients and health care providers in real-life settings. KP Northwest enrolls more than 500,000 health plan members and 200,000 dental members in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Our sister research site in Honolulu—affiliated with the Hawaii region of KP—adds significantly to the diversity of our member pool, with 244,000 additional multi-ethnic members. In addition, we cultivate strong working partnerships with academic institutions, community organizations, and other health systems.