By William Wan / The Washington Post
Kaiser Permanente announced Monday that it will begin studying gun violence — a long-ignored issue because of the political pressures surrounding firearms in this country — by investing $2 million in research that will involve doctors and other professionals across its hospitals and centers nationwide.
Officials at the giant health system said they hope the move will encourage other systems to wade into this field of research, which has had lack of funding and data in the more than two decades since the federal government virtually abandoned such studies.
“The problem now is we really don’t have evidence to know what’s effective and what works” to prevent gun-related injury, said David Grossman, a senior researcher who will help lead the new task force.
Kaiser Permanente decided to jump-start its effort because of the huge effect of gun violence on its patients. The health system has more than 12 million member patients across the country, and between 2015 and 2017, its doctors treated more than 11,000 gunshot wounds.
“This is something that affects us and our patients directly,” said Bechara Choucair, the system’s chief community health officer.
The announcement coincides with a resurgence of gun-control activism — led by the student survivors of the February mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, — as well as with new actions by retailers and companies to limit sales of military-style rifles and high-capacity guns and increased research interest from private foundations and state governments.
Scientists who study gun violence and injury said Kaiser Permanente’s decision is a significant development in their world, given the health system’s institutional resources and data, not to mention the money.
“In some fields like cancer research, $2 million may seem like small change. … But in gun research, where there is almost no money at all, this is big,” said David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center.
By comparison, the annual budget for gun-violence research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was $2.6 million in 1996. That was the year Congress passed a rule essentially killing almost all federal funding for such work. The rule, known as the Dickey Amendment, was backed by the National Rifle Association and remains in place.
On Capitol Hill, language accompanying last month’s $1.3 trillion spending bill clarified that the CDC can conduct research on gun violence. But that wording did not address the Dickey Amendment, and Congress did not restore any federal funding for that research.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
