September 11, 2019: Deadline Extended for Special Supplement Seeking Papers on Embedded Research

AcademyHealth

The submission deadline has been extended to October 28, 2019, for a special supplement on embedded health services research in Healthcare: The Journal of Delivery Science and Innovation, the partner journal of AcademyHealth. Embedded research is a critical part of the learning health system in mining and analyzing health system data to improve patient care while also providing generalizable findings to transform the health care system at large.

This special supplement is being supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Services Research & Development and will be published in March 2020. It is expected to feature 10-12 peer-reviewed articles. Ultimately, the supplement will be a resource for those aiming to improve the relevance and use of health research to improve patient care.

For details on relevant topics and how to submit your paper online, visit the journal’s special issue page.

June 14, 2018: NIH Collaboratory Members to Host Session on Embedded PCTs at AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting

The upcoming AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting, June 24-26, 2018, will feature a special session on Embedding Pragmatic Clinical Trials in Health Care Systems: Trials and Tribulations, Monday, June 25, at 5:15 pm, hosted by members of the Health Care Systems Interactions Core Working Group:

Chair: Cathy Meyers, MD, NIH/NICCH

Discussant: Eric B. Larson, MD, MPH, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute

Speakers: Vince Mor, PhD, Brown University School of Public Health; Greg Simon, MD, MPH, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute; and Lynn DeBar, PhD, MPH, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute

Held at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, this large gathering of health services researchers and policy analysts will include workshops, poster and podium sessions, emerging issues panels, policy roundtables, and special topic sessions. Other NIH Collaboratory members planning to present at the meeting include Leah Tuzzio, MPH, Jerry Jarvik, MD, MPH, Miguel Vazquez, MD, Kathryn James, MPH, Gloria Coronado, PhD, and Beverly Green, MD, MPH.

 “Attendees will learn about the challenges of pilot testing, studying patient-reported outcomes, using existing data, and the multiple levels of implementation in dynamic systems.” – Leah Tuzzio, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute

For details, visit the meeting event site at http://www.academyhealth.org/events/site/2018-annual-research-meeting.

May 5, 2018: New Article Explores Opportunities for Funding the Training of Future Health Services Researchers

In a new article, Dr. Vincent Mor, an NIH Collaboratory investigator, and Dr. Paul Wallace describe the history, current status, and opportunities for funding training in health services research (HSR). While the number of organizations seeking to solve problems with health services research has been expanding, direct government support for HSR is declining. The authors project 5 key challenges for the field and its professional development:

  • Formulating and prioritizing research topics
  • Whether to use team- or individual-based approaches
  • How new data sources, analytic methods, and the need for faster results affect supply and demand for HSR
  • Shifts from public to institutional funding and the associated effects on generalizability
  • Balancing proprietary concerns regarding data, predictive models, and study results with the need to improve public health and rapidly disseminate information

According to the authors, sustainable solution will involve active collaboration between those who use HSR as a part of decision-making (and will likely pay for it) and those who produce it.

“We believe that the key change needed to productively address the above challenges will be a closer collaboration between HSR users, especially health systems, and academic HSR training programs to work towards producing timely, internally relevant, and externally generalizable knowledge (Mor and Wallace 2018).”

Dr. Mor is a principal investigator for the Pragmatic Trial of Video Education in Nursing Homes (PROVEN) trial, one of the NIH Collaboratory Trials.

Mor V, Wallace P. 2018.  Funding the Training of Future Health Services Researchers. Health Services Research. doi:10.1111/1475-6773.12844.