Institutional Training Programs (T32s)
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Department of Population Health Sciences
School of Medicine and Public Health
Contact
Maureen A. Smith, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D.
Director, AHRQ Pre-doctoral and Post-doctoral Traineeships in
Health Services Research and Healthcare Quality Improvement
Associate Professor, Depts. of Population Health Sciences and Family Medicine
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
610 Walnut Street, Room 505
Madison, WI 53726-2397
Phone: (608) 262-4802
E-mail: maureensmith@wisc.edu
Web site: http://www.pophealth.wisc.edu/HSR/traininggrant.htm
Content Areas
- Translating research into practice and policy.
- Patient safety and quality.
- Quality improvement.
- Patient-centered care.
- Payments, markets, and organization.
- Healthcare disparities.
- Large database methods.
Program Description
The objective of this training program is to produce highly skilled health services researchers who have a strong interdisciplinary foundation in applied research settings, systems and quality improvement, and quantitative evaluation methods. Although our students may each eventually conduct detailed research in only one of the AHRQ priority areas, it is our desire to see that they have interdisciplinary exposures and analytic tools allowing them to understand the interlinkages between clinical policy, organizational policy, and public policy levels. They should understand and be responsive to the realities of applied intervention and evaluation research as well as be skilled in general analytic methods for health services research and quality improvement from a systems perspective. Finally, they should also understand the fundamentals of partnering with community-based organizations.
The Program in Population Health encompasses core training opportunities in health services research, epidemiology, health economics, and quantitative methods. Most trainees in this T32 program will be Ph.D. students in Population Health. Although the Population Health Program is administratively housed in the PHS Department of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH), the highly inter-disciplinary faculty in the program hold appointments in 13 schools and colleges across the campus and many departments within these. The training faculty affiliated directly with this AHRQ T32 proposal represent six of these schools and colleges (Medicine, Engineering, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Affairs, and Social Work) and many departments within these.
Other trainees will pursue Ph.D. degrees through the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE), which has emphasis areas in health systems engineering, quality engineering, and human factors engineering. Trainees in this arm of the proposed program will be affiliated with the Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement (CQPI) and the AHRQ-sponsored Developmental Center for Research and Evaluation in Patient Safety: the Systems Engineering Initiative in Patient Safety (SEIPS), which is housed within CQPI.
The training program has also developed a formal partnership with four UW schools and colleges (Nursing, Pharmacy, Engineering, and Public Affairs) through the new NIH-funded Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR). Led by Dr. Maureen Smith, the Community-Academic Partnerships (CAP) core of the ICTR includes resources dedicated to "Type 2" translational research (understanding how new findings are best implemented in clinical practice) as well as resources dedicated to building community partnerships. The trainees will have significant opportunities to benefit including interaction with ICTR trainees through seminars and coursework. They will also have access to ICTR-supported UW and community-based infrastructure such as local datasets, training in community-based research, mock study sections, writing workshops, and a new certificate program in Type 2 translational research.
Post-doctoral trainees will be encouraged to develop an individualized training program, according to their interests and background. The program will provide an individualized Career Development Plan with activities geared to each scholar's career level, interests, and learning needs. Each plan will be formulated in collaboration with the scholar, the scholar's faculty mentors and the program directors. Trainees will be encouraged to develop a mentoring team with Program faculty from multiple disciplines (Medicine and Public Health, Industrial and Systems Engineering, Pharmacy, Nursing, and Public Affairs). The Department of Population Health Sciences houses one of six Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJ) Health & Society post-doctoral fellowship programs in the nation. Trainees have opportunities to interact with the post-doctoral scholars in the RWJF fellowship through seminars, coursework, and research projects.
Current as of August 2008
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Internet Citation:
Institutional Training Programs (T32s): University of Wisconsin. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/fund/training/T32-25.htm
540 Gaither Road Rockville, MD 20850