Meeting Summary

VA's Health Services Research & Development Service (HSR&D) Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI) National Meeting was held from December 10-12, 2008 in Phoenix, AZ. The QUERI program was created to improve the quality of healthcare for veterans by implementing research findings into routine clinical practice. More than 250 researchers, clinicians, and policy makers participated in plenary sessions, workshops, and poster sessions to focus on the vital partnership between VA Research and Operations in facilitating and systematizing the implementation of evidence-based interventions into routine clinical care. Many of the QUERI interventions would not have been implemented without the support of these stakeholders. The meeting also allowed the QUERI Centers to share valuable lessons learned that will save time and costs in future implementation efforts. Each of the QUERI Centers focuses on a different disease/condition prevalent among veterans: chronic heart disease, diabetes, HIV/Hepatitis, ischemic heart disease, mental health, polytrauma and traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, stroke, and substance use disorders.

The QUERI National Meeting marked QUERI's tenth year as a crucial part of VA's quality improvement efforts and several notable achievements were discussed. For example, QUERI investigators developed an evidence-based collaborative approach to depression management that has proven successful in the VA healthcare system, and were instrumental in creating a system to track diagnostic and interventional catheterization procedures for veterans with ischemic heart disease. All VA cath labs now participate in the Cardiac Assessment, Reporting and Tracking System for Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories (CART-CL). QUERI interventions also have increased influenza vaccination rates among veterans with spinal cord injury, as well as improving rates for alcohol abuse screening, and HIV testing.

QUERI has emerged as a leader in implementation science and an important program for improving healthcare for veterans. QUERI will continue to work with its partners in VA's Office of Quality and Performance, Patient Care Services, Office of Nursing Services, the Office of Information and Technology and others, to advance healthcare for veterans.

To learn more about all of the QUERI Centers, please visit the QUERI website at www.queri.research.va.gov/.