California-based HMO Kaiser Permanente on Wednesday announced the creation of a decades-long research project that will collect and analyze genetic information from hundreds of thousands of adult members, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
Kaiser Permanente has sent surveys to two million members in Northern California asking about their medical history, exercise and eating habits. Researchers expect about 500,000 members to participate (Feder Ostrov, San Jose Mercury News, 2/15). Kaiser Permanente plans to begin a second phase of the project in 2008, when it will ask members to donate genetic material through cheek or blood samples. Researchers then will combine their collected information with Kaiser Permanente's "massive medical history records in a database that [they] can use to gain a deeper understanding of disease causes and develop treatments," the AP/Houston Chronicle reports (Elias, AP/Houston Chronicle, 2/14). Conditions likely to be targeted by the project -- called the Research Program on Genes, Environment and Health -- include cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, asthma, diabetes and reproductive problems (Peyton Dahlberg, Sacramento Bee, 2/15). Similar studies are "planned or are under way in Great Britain, Iceland, Japan and Estonia, but the Kaiser membership study appears to stand out both for its size and ethnic diversity in the United States," the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Hall, San Francisco Chronicle, 2/15). Participation will be voluntary, and the privacy of genetic information will be protected, according to Kaiser Permanente (Rundle, Wall Street Journal, 2/15). The project will not include research on gene therapy, cloning, stem cell research or testing for specific genetic problems, according to Catherine Schaefer, the project's co-director. The project's initial $7 million in funding has been provided by Kaiser Permanente, the Wayne and Gladys Valley Foundation and the Ellison Medical Foundation. The project "is expected to receive more federal government and foundation grants," the Mercury News reports.
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