If you or someone you love has cancer, a heart condition, diabetes, or a mental health condition, you’re not alone. These are critical health issues facing our communities.

Researching these issues — and many more — is a key way we strive to improve the health of our communities.

Our researchers focus on better understanding health risks and improving treatments. We share our findings broadly, so they can help improve care for everyone, not just our members.

Better data, better research

We are uniquely positioned to conduct research due to our large member base and powerful electronic health record.

Our membership of 12.6 million people is diverse and spread out over 8 states and the District of Columbia. Our electronic health record allows our researchers to track many of the same members’ health over years and even decades. 

Key areas of focus

Cancer research

We have decades of experience caring for patients with cancer as well as conducting health disparities research and cancer clinical trials. We are one of the largest enrolling sites in the nation for the National Cancer Institute, the U.S. government’s principal agency for cancer research. And we’re part of the National Cancer Institute’s Community Oncology Research Program, a national network that brings cancer clinical trials and care-delivery studies to people in their own communities.

Heart disease research

Cardiovascular disease, or heart disease, is the leading cause of death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Our unique operating model — providing both care and coverage — allows our research scientists, clinicians, medical groups, and health plan leaders to collaborate. That collaboration allows us to make important discoveries about heart disease.

Vaccine research

Our scientists have been conducting vaccine safety and effectiveness research for decades. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, our scientists participated in several clinical trials to help develop successful new vaccines at record speed to protect against the novel coronavirus.

We also participate in the Vaccine Safety Datalink — a collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and 9 health care organizations. The Vaccine Safety Datalink conducts research on the safety and effectiveness of many vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccine.

Reporting financial conflicts of interest

As an ethical research organization, we know it’s vital to be open and honest about any potential conflicts of interest among our researchers. We disclose any involvement that our researchers or their immediate family members may have with a study’s sponsors according to federal regulations and institutional policies.