Mission: To cultivate the research that drives evidence-based medicine.
The Physician Researcher Program (PRP) supports a select group of TPMG clinicians to conduct research that transforms how care is delivered while also continuing to make clinical contributions.
The Permanente Medical Group seeks to enhance physician opportunities and its learning health care system by providing sustained support for a network of physician delivery science researchers, integrating them into a systematic evaluation of clinical care, and facilitating the dissemination and implementation of the resulting knowledge.
This program, started in 2017, provides long-term professional development and research support for evaluating priority topics to their specialty.
Since 2017, two additional cohorts of physicians have joined the program, these 13 physician researchers are devoting 20 to 40 percent of their time to research projects designed to produce new knowledge that has direct impact on high-priority issues in clinical care. The physician researchers will disseminate and implement the relevant learnings across Kaiser Permanente Northern California, and foster collaborations among physicians in their specialties and across specialties.
Physicians Involved in Research

Vignesh Arasu, MD
Radiology
Vallejo Medical Center

Robert Chang, MD
Surgery
South San Francisco Medical Center

Kathryn Erickson-Ridout, MD
Psychiatry
Santa Rosa Medical Center

Matthew E. Hirschtritt, MD, MPH
Psychiatry
Oakland Medical Center

Theodore R. Levin, MD
Gastroenterology, Population Health
Diablo Valley Service Area

Dan Li, MD
Gastroenterology
Santa Clara Medical Center

Mai N. Nguyen-Huynh, MD, MAS
Neurology
Walnut Creek Medical Center

Joseph C. Presti, MD
Urology
San Francisco Medical Center

Dana Sax, MD
Emergency Medicine
Oakland Medical Center

Jacek Skarbinski, MD
Infectious Diseases
Oakland Medical Center

Matthew D. Solomon, MD, PhD
Cardiology
Oakland Medical Center, Richmond Medical Center

Elizabeth (Betty) J. Suh-Burgmann, MD
Gynecologic Oncology
Antioch Medical Center, Walnut Creek Medical Center

David R. Vinson, MD
Emergency Medicine
Roseville Medical Center, Sacramento Medical Center