Biomedical research constantly produces new findings. While research is essential, translating this research data into health care practice is challenging. How do busy doctors turn research findings into real therapies for real patients? Doctors have to determine how often a relevant case may appear in their practice, how the case presents itself and how to incorporate the new research into a change in their practices. In a large group practice, such as PAMF, there is also the opportunity to improve how care is organized and delivered.

When Dr. Russel Lee started the Research Institute, he had this link between clinical practice and research in mind. At the Research Institute, doctors could work with researchers to test ideas for improving patient care that had occurred to them during clinical practice. They could then take this data and apply it in their practice. Researchers can explore data for patterns that may suggest ways to improve practice. This collaboration between clinical practice and research continues to this day. Examples include:

• Developing evidence based on PAMF patients showing the relationship between risk of diabetes and weight varies across Asian subgroups. such as people from China, India, Japan and the Philippines.
  
• Mounting a randomized controlled trial assessing a computer-based approach to help patients manage their diabetes.
  
• Examining whether adding physician-specific incentives to improve the quality of care for specific conditions leads to more rapid improvement in quality than the usual approaches.
  
• Understanding the variability across physicians in the use of services to treat common acute and chronic illnesses.

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