Sameer Saini, MD, MS, has been named director of the HSR&D Center of Innovation for Clinical Management Research (CCMR), in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Dr. Saini will take on leadership of CCMR after long-time director, Eve Kerr, MD, MPH, stepped down earlier this year.
Dr. Saini is an active health services researcher and gastroenterologist with a long-standing interest in understanding, evaluating, and reducing low-value care. He is currently leading the HSR&D Research to Impact for VeteRans (RIVRs) project “Reducing Use of Low-Value Services and Enhancing Appropriate Care in the VA Healthcare System.” The RIVRs program gives researchers the opportunity to pursue a five-year impact goal that both aligns with VA priority areas and includes outcomes with real-world effects on Veterans’ health and satisfaction. The primary goal of Dr. Saini’s project is to reduce the use of low-value colonoscopy across Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 10. Dr. Saini also leads the HSR&D-funded project, “Evaluation of the National Randomized Proton Pump Inhibitor De-prescribing (RaPPID) Program,” which is evaluating the effectiveness of VA’s proton pump de-prescribing program.
The mission of CCMR is to advance knowledge, promote innovations, and engage in collaborations that will improve Veteran’s health. CCMR investigators work closely with VA clinical, policy, and operations leaders on several VA priorities, including improving access to care, breaking ground in suicide prevention, and shaping opioid prescription guidelines.
HSR&D Director David Atkins, MD, MPH, commented, “We are delighted with Dr. Saini’s appointment. He takes over an outstanding team of researchers at CCMR and continues a tradition of accomplished clinician-scientists as leaders of that Center of Innovation.”
In addition to his new leadership role with CCMR, Dr. Saini is an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan Medical School, where he directs the Gastroenterology Early Career Faculty Mentoring Program, and is Associate Director of the NIH T32 GI Epidemiology Training Program. He has published extensively on topics ranging from gastroenterological care to reducing low-value services, and his work has appeared in journals including the Journal of the American Medical Association, The American Journal of Gastroenterology, and Annals of Internal Medicine.
