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Welcome
Health care delivery systems often fall short in translating the benefits of research into improving health. While research studies suggest that evidence-based practices may be higher within VA than in the private sector, large gaps still remain between knowledge and practice. It is in this context that the Center for Research in the Implementation of Innovative Strategies in Practice (CRIISP) was established in June 2004 as a new VA HSR&D Center of Excellence focusing on implementation research.
CRIISP’s mission is to conduct innovative research that advances understanding of strategies for incorporating knowledge into practice and that improves veterans’ well being. This research will stimulate the adoption of evidence-based practices, and develop, test, and disseminate novel interventions to improve quality and costs in a variety of practice settings. CRIISP studies are driven by a conceptual framework for introducing innovation into environments with complex organizational and social structures, which explicitly recognizes the importance of patient involvement and activation in implementing new practices.
Projects are designed by interdisciplinary teams, incorporate a spectrum of quantitative and qualitative methods, and emphasize conditions for which there is both evidence to achieve a national consensus regarding best practices and clearly demonstrated gaps between evidence and practice. In particular, CRIISP focuses on interventions that address multiple chronic conditions simultaneously, recognizing the impracticality of subjecting patients with multiple chronic conditions to several disease-specific strategies. In addition, CRIISP develops patient-centered interventions that incorporate strategies most likely to be effective in a particular patient and that address conditions most important to the patient.
CRIISP represents a collaborative venture between the VA HSR&D Service, Iowa City VAMC, VISN 23 and health services research programs at the University of Iowa in Medicine, Public Health, Nursing, and Public Policy. These groups have worked closely in developing research programs that seek to improve the quality of care received by veterans and others throughout the nation. The strong alliance that CRIISP enjoys with the University of Iowa has enabled CRIISP to capitalize on the expertise of senior faculty in a number of methodological disciplines that are important to implementation research, including behavioral health, organization, management, qualitative methods, hierarchical biostatistics, and translation theory. These senior faculty are involved in building methodological cores and mentoring junior investigators to expand the breadth and depth of investigation. Through these collaborations, CRIISP hopes to become a national model for VA-university research collaborations and for research that tangibly improves the well-being of veterans.
We hope you enjoy learning more about the work and people of CRIISP through our website. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at CRIISP@med.va.gov
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