The award from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality will allow researches to look at care patterns for heart disease prevention methods, patient outcomes and costs. The agency is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and supports research designed to improve healthcare for Americans.

"With an integrated care system like Kaiser Permanente's, researchers can tap vast quantities of electronic data with KP HealthConnect to improve quality of care, reduce death rates and lower costs," Said Thomas M. Vogt, a senior investigator at Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research in Honolulu and the study's principal investigator.