Houston VA Health Services Research and Development Center of Excellence

Thank you for your interest in our Center! We are a combined Baylor College of Medicine Section in the Department of Medicine and a VA Health Services Research & Development Center of Excellence (the latter funded by a P01 type center grant from the VA). We conduct high-quality scientific research that improves the health of veterans and patients across the nation, by helping to ensure the patient-centered delivery of scientific discoveries. We support, mentor and develop outstanding research leaders. Our research extends from patient experience, to clinical practice and outcomes of care, to the development of health care policy, and has been disseminated to key policy makers, health care administrative leaders, influential stakeholders, the mainstream media, as well as the best academic journals and professional scientific societies.

The CoE was founded in 1990 (and successfully competitively renewed thereafter) as the Houston Center for Quality of Care & Utilization Studies. The CoE is organized into the following four scientific programs: Health Decision-Making and Communication, Clinical Epidemiology and Outcomes, Health Services Delivery and Organization, and Health Policy and Quality. These programs are supported by the Design and Analysis Program for methods support including biostatistics and programming and the Operations Group, for finance and administrative functions.

The goal of each program is to provide outstanding leadership and scholarship to produce the best science in its area of emphasis, while collaborating effectively across programs. The leaders of the four programs along with the CoE Principal Investigator and Chiefs of the Design and Analysis and Operations programs comprise the Leadership Team, which meets weekly to set CoE policy and manage operations.

I encourage you to explore our recently updated website to learn more about the exciting and innovative research being conducted by our programs at the Houston VA Health Services Research and Development CoE. We are always looking to expand our exceptional investigators, fellows and staff. If you're located in the greater Houston/Galveston area, I invite you to attend our scientific and professional development seminars, which occur at noon on Wednesdays.

See our Helpful Links page for important links to our partner institutions as well as to facts about Houston.

Laura A. Petersen, M.D., M.P.H., Principal Investigator
Houston VA Health Services Research and Development Center of Excellence and
Chief Section of Health Services Research at Baylor College of Medicine