Durham Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care

VA HSR&D Center of Excellence

The Durham Center for Health Services Research and Development in Primary Care (HSR&D) is one of the original VA HSR&D Centers, founded in 1982 and housed at the Durham VA Medical Center. Our 29 core faculty and over 150 staff members conduct creative, high-quality health services research for the benefit of our nation's Veterans, as well as improve the health and quality of life for all of our nation's people.

The Center's main objective is to develop and test strategies that enhance the delivery, quality, and cost-efficiency of primary care for Veterans. We achieve our goals by partnering with VHA stakeholders including our medical center’s leadership, VISN, and national VA program offices such as the National Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (NCP).  In partnership with our academic affiliates, Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, we also support a major education objective for clinical and PhD prepared scholars through fellowship programs and didactic course work.

Within the broad area of Primary Care, we conduct research in four main areas: 

1. Understanding the architecture of primary care including access, screening for disease, patient experience, patient-provider communication, practice improvement, and generalist-specialists interactions; 
2. Defining and promoting healthy behaviors in primary care;
3. Evaluating new methods to enhance access to high quality care (e.g., telemedicine); and
4. Understanding the influence of race/ethnicity, gender, and cultural factors on access, quality, and patient outcomes.

Please explore our website to learn more about our faculty, research, and educational opportunities.

Eugene Z. Oddone, M.D., M.H.Sc, Director
Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care, Durham VA Medical Center
Professor of Medicine, Duke University