ResearchResearch AreasEvidence-Based Medicine

Evidence-based Practice Center

Photo of EPC team Front Row: Cory Evans, Michelle Eder, Nadia Redmond, Tracy Beil, Jennifer Lin, Elizabeth O’Connor, Beth Webber, Leslie Perdue
Back Row: Rachel Thomas, Debra Burch, Megan Iacocca, Allea Martin, Carrie Patnode, Jillian Henderson, Erin Coppola, Caitlyn Senger, Sarah Bean

The Kaiser Permanente Evidence-based Practice Center (KP EPC) is one of 9 centers nationwide to be designated as an official EPC by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

The Kaiser Permanente Evidence-based Practice Center (KP EPC) is one of 9 centers nationwide to be designated as an official EPC by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

 The EPCs synthesize available scientific evidence on health care topics by conducting evidence reports, including systematic reviews, comparative effectiveness reviews, technical briefs, technology assessments, modeling, and decision-analyses. These evidence reports are used to guide health care decision-making by clinicians, patients, policymakers, researchers, and payers. The EPCs also conduct research to advance the methodology of systematic reviews.

The KP EPC involves a large network of researchers from the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research and Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute. The KP EPC is headquartered in Portland, Oregon at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research and directed by Jennifer S. Lin, MD, MCR.

Investigators at the Kaiser Permanente EPC have extensive experience in key cross-cutting areas, such as conducting complex systematic reviews in preventive services, behavioral interventions, and medical test evaluations, as well as focused expertise in methods development. Our investigators have completed systematic reviews or methods-related projects for many groups, including the Effective Health Care Program, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), and World Health Organization (WHO). KP EPC researchers have also played a key role in the Scientific Resource Center work undertaken for major evidence-based programs, such as the Effective Health Care Program, USPSTF, and Evaluation of Genomic Applications in Practice and Prevention (EGAPP).

EPC Contacts

Jennifer S. Lin, MD, MCR

KP EPC Director
Jennifer.S.Lin@kpchr.org

Tracy Berntsen

KP EPC Research Program Manager
Tracy.Beil@kpchr.org

Debra Burch

Assistant to KP EPC Director
Debra.Burch@kpchr.org

Mailing Address

KP Evidence-based Practice Center

Center for Health Research
Kaiser Permanente Northwest
3800 N. Interstate Ave.
Portland, OR 97227-1110

A Brief History of the EPC

Under the leadership of Evelyn Whitlock, MD, MPH, the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research was a founding partner in the Oregon Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC), one of the 12 original EPCs initially designated in 1997 by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Over 24 years, we have built our EPC experience into a vibrant research enterprise employing a stable staff of close to 20 dedicated systematic reviewers.

In 2012, we established the Kaiser Permanente EPC (KP EPC), which has since engaged over 50 researchers and staff on more than 60 systematic reviews or methods projects. After 10 years as a lead investigator in our EPC, and three years as associate director, Dr. Jennifer S. Lin became the EPC director in 2016.

Independence & Conflicts of Interest

We conduct our EPC work as part of the extensive, externally-funded, non-proprietary research that is conducted in affiliation with the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research. Since the KP EPC’s funding and operations are within autonomous research centers, our EPC investigators’ research agendas and published findings are neither determined nor influenced by the Kaiser Permanente payer or delivery system leaders and administrators. In addition, we have policies and procedures in place to ensure that no undue conflicts of interest affect the perception or actual conduct of our work. Potential conflicts of interest are clearly identified and disclosed, and individuals with potential conflicts of interest (i.e., those who could gain a personal financial or other benefit from a particular scientific decision) are not allowed to influence any of the scientific decisions or access the results before publication.