SPRINT's mission is to accelerate VA suicide prevention (SP) research that will improve care and reduce suicidal thoughts and behaviors among Veterans.

Newly-funded CSR&D Precision Medicine Suicide Prevention Center Integrates with SPRINT

In 2019, the Health Services Research and Development Service (HSR&D), under the VA Office of Research and Development, funded several new Consortia of Research (COREs), including the Suicide Prevention Research Impact NeTwork (SPRINT; Suicide Prevention Research Impact NeTwork (SPRINT) (va.gov)). The overarching aims of COREs are to 1) develop a prioritized set of research goals informed by review of current projects, gaps in evidence, and the needs of VHA; and 2) develop a collaborative network of researchers to develop and conduct research to achieve these goals. Since funding began, SPRINT has worked closely with suicide prevention researchers and operations and other partners to achieve these aims. Although SPRINT’s network includes researchers funded by the VA Clinical Science Research & Development (CSR&D) service, we have been working over the past few years with CSR&D and HSR&D leadership to integrate suicide prevention efforts across the two services. In late 2022, CSR&D funded a new Suicide Prevention Clinical Resource Center with a focus on precision medicine, and with the intention of integrating efforts of the new center with SPRINT to optimize synergies and impact and reduce duplications.

The mission of the HSR&D/CSR&D-funded SPRINT is to accelerate VA health services suicide prevention research to improve care and reduce suicidal thoughts and behaviors among Veterans. SPRINT will continue to serve as a national collaborative network of VHA researchers and operations partners, maintain up-to-date information about VA suicide prevention research and operations projects, collaborate with VA’s Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention to identify research priorities, facilitate development of innovative research proposals though a planning award mechanism and field-based meetings, and foster professional development among suicide prevention researchers. A new priority of SPRINT is to advance a precision medicine approach to suicide prevention. This priority is consistent with the aims of the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act, which builds upon VA’s already robust suicide prevention efforts.

The Principal Investigators of SPRINT are:

• Steven Dobscha, MD (Corresponding PI, HSRD), VA Portland Health Care System; HSRD Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care (CIVIC)
• Brian Marx, PhD (Corresponding PI, CSRD), VA Boston Healthcare System, National Center for PTSD
• Mark Ilgen, PhD, VA Ann Arbor, Center for Clinical Management (CCMR)
• Marianne Goodman, MD, James J Peters VA Medical Center, VISN 2 Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC)
• Teresa Hudson, PhD, PharmD, VA Little Rock, HSRD Center for Mental Healthcare & Outcomes Research (CeMHOR)
• Nathan Kimbrel, PhD, VA Durham Healthcare System, Mid-Atlantic MIRECC
• Alejandro Interian, PhD, VA New Jersey Healthcare System