BACKGROUND/RATIONALE:
Implementing evidence into practice remains a challenging prospect. VA's dual missions in patient care delivery and research enhance the potential impact of implementation research to foster the translation of veteran-centric research findings into improved clinical practice in the VA health care system. VA HSR&D Service provided supplemental funding as a mechanism for supporting and fostering effective collaboration with academic experts in implementation research to enhance VA's research in this emerging field.

OBJECTIVE(S):
The core objective of this supplemental funding was to obtain collaboration support (1) to contribute to the theory and practice of implementation research through expert consultation, (2) advance the quality, sophistication and effectiveness of our implementation research agenda through development of state-of-the-art methods in the design and planning of proposed and existing implementation studies, and (3) to consider the design and conduct of new empirical studies to develop and test the business case for quality improvement in VA.

METHODS:
The VA Greater Los Angeles HSR&D Center of Excellence applied for and received funding to support three uniquely talented academic experts in implementation research and health care management. Uday Karmarkar, PhD, the Los Angeles Times-Mirror Professor of Technology and Strategy at the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA, is an internationally-recognized expert in implementing health care-related best practices. Fred Hagigi, DrPH, MPH, MBA, is Associate Professor of Health Services at the UCLA School of Public Health and Director of their Health Services Management & Health Policy Executive Program. Jeff Luck, PhD, MBA, is Associate Professor of Health Services also at the UCLA School of Public Health, with expertise in designing/implementing interactive decision support tools for health care managers, and process reengineering.

FINDINGS/RESULTS:
Consistent with the goals of the collaboration support, the academic experts delivered a series of seminars/workshops in social marketing, business case development, process improvement and policy analysis, in addition to one-on-one and team-based consultations on several core implementation research studies (e.g., implementation/spread of depression collaborative care models, evaluation of VA reorganization strategies, expansion of HIV screening to fit CDC universal screening guidelines, and implementation of quitlines for smoking cessation). Academic experts contributed to the development of a new Implementation Science curriculum, which is now a formal UCLA course with a briefer version for VA investigators and staff. They also developed a teaching case focused on VA reorganization and quality improvement as a public sector turnaround.

IMPACT:
Our academic collaboration in support of implementation research has led to the design of VA business case models for improving the marketability and adoption of evidence-based practice in multiple VISNs and enhancing national rollout of evidence-based care models.

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External Links for this Project

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PUBLICATIONS:

Journal Articles

1. Luck J, Hagigi F, Parker LE, Yano EM, Rubenstein LV, Kirchner JE. A social marketing approach to implementing evidence-based practice in VHA QUERI: the TIDES depression collaborative care model. Implementation science : IS. 2009 Sep 28; 4:64. [view]

Conference Presentations

1. Yano EM, Luck J, Hagigi F, Liu CF, Rubenstein LV. Building the VA Business Case for Quality Improvement and Health Services Research. Paper presented at: VA HSR&D National Meeting; 2005 Feb 18; Baltimore, MD. [view]
2. Luck J, Parker LE, Hagigi F, Yano EM, Kirchner JE. Marketing: An essential component for effectively implementing evidence-based interventions in VA. Paper presented at: VA HSR&D National Meeting; 2006 Feb 16; Arlington, VA. [view]
3. Yano EM, Asch SM, Kiefe CI, Weeks W, Vandenburg P, Keeler E. The Business Case for Implementing Evidence-Based Practice. Paper presented at: AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting; 2005 Jun 1; Boston, MA. [view]
4. Anaya H, Goetz MB, Karmarkar US, Asch SM. Using Capacity Planning Models to Estimate Organizational Costs of HIV Care Within the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Poster session presented at: International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care International Conference on HIV Treatment and Prevention Adherence; 2010 Nov 29; New Orleans, LA. [view]
5. Anaya H, Chan K, Goetz MB, Karmarkar US, Asch SM. Using Capacity Planning Models to Estimate Organizational Costs of HIV Care within the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Poster session presented at: International AIDS Conference; 2010 Jul 18; Vienna, Austria. [view]
6. Anaya H, Chan K, Goetz MB, Karmarkar US, Asch SM. Using Capacity Planning Models to Estimate Organizational Costs of HIV Care Within the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Poster session presented at: International Conference on HIV Treatment and Prevention Adherence; 2011 May 22; Miami, FL. [view]
7. Anaya H, Chan K, Goetz MB, Karmarkar US, Asch SM. Using Capacity Planning Models to Estimate Organizational Costs of HIV Care Within the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Poster session presented at: AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting; 2011 Jun 12; Seattle, WA. [view]
8. Anaya H, Chan K, Goetz MB, Karmarkar US, Asch SM. Using Capacity Planning Models to Estimate Organizational Costs of HIV Care Within the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Poster session presented at: American Conference for the Treatment of HIV; 2011 Apr 7; Denver, CO. [view]

DRA: Health Systems Science
DRE: none
Keywords: Implementation
MeSH Terms: none