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BACKGROUND/RATIONALE:
We have applied this VA HSR&D Center supplemental funding to support collaboration between our VA investigators and three uniquely talented academic experts in implementation research and health care management with the explicit goal of advancing the quality, sophistication and effectiveness of our implementation research agenda and developing the business case for quality improvement in VA.
Uday Karmarkar, PhD, the Los Angeles Times-Mirror Professor of Technology and Strategy and Research Director and co-founder of the Center for Management in the Information Economy (CMIE) at the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA, is an internationally-recognized expert in establishing and implementing health care-related best practices. Fred Hagigi, DrPH, MPH, MBA, is Associate Professor of Health Services, UCLA School of Public Health. A highly respected educator providing graduate management training to health professionals in the highly successful UCLA MPH for Health Professionals Program, Dr. Hagigi provides expertise in: the structuring of health care provider organizations; health care financial management; process improvement; and the marketing of health care services, building on over two decades of experience as a management consultant. Jeff Luck, PhD, MBA, Associate Professor of Health Services at the UCLA School of Public Health, brings expertise in: measuring the quality of health care; collecting and analyzing population health information; designing and implementing interactive decision support tools for health care managers and leaders; and process reengineering. His work in implementation science and health services management builds on a decade of experience in management and engineering that he has effectively applied in his current research and consulting, including distinguishing himself in his VA-based primary care re-engineering work
OBJECTIVE(S):
The core objective of this collaboration is to substantively contribute to the theory and practice of implementation research through expert consultation and joint development and application of state-of-the-art methods and conduct of new empirical studies to develop and test the business case for quality improvement in VA.
METHODS:
The collaborative work is being achieved through regular weekly conference calls, quarterly intensive in-person meetings, and one-on-one or team-based consultations with Center investigators to provide education to VA investigators through the development of a compendium of audiovisual and web-based materials and a course curriculum demonstrating the competency requirements for implementation researchers, as well as hands-on work on VA-funded implementation research studies. together, our academic experts have worked with Center investigators in educational venues, providing specialized
FINDINGS/RESULTS:
In our first year of collaborative work, our academic experts have worked with Center investigators in sevearl educational efforts, providing specialized seminars/workshops in social marketing, business case development and policy analysis, and in one-on-one and team-based consultations on several core implementation studies (depression collaborative care, evaluation of VA reorganization/ongoing QI, HIV rapid screening and telephone counseling for smoking cessation). Key activities have included the development and presentation of the VA Business Case for Quality Improvement workshop at HSR&D (available as a cyber-seminar) (Luck, Hagigi); a social marketing seminar (Hagigi) presented to Center faculty and recorded for distribution as a DVD and web-seminar, among others. Other sessions are under development, as is an implementation research curriculum spearheaded by Dr. Brian Mittman with these experts, and early development of a UCLA School of Public Health course for all of our investigators. Center faculty and related project staff have worked with the experts to develop the business case implications of applying new HIV screening guidelines to national VA practice to explicitly address staffing, management and patient outcomes implications (Karmarkar), as well as working on the business case for the national spread of depression collaborative care (Luck & Hagigi). Drs. Karmarkar, Luck and Hagigi are also more than half-way through the development of a teaching case focused on VA reorganization and quality improvement as a public sector turnaround.
IMPACT:
The academic collaboration is leading to the design of VA business case models for improving the fit and translation of VA health services research into actionable and informative management initiatives and business plans.
PUBLICATIONS:
None at this time.
DRA:
Health Services and Systems
DRE:
none
Keywords:
Implementation
MeSH Terms:
none
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