Center for Healthcare Innovation, Implementation, and Policy

 Research Areas

Our areas of research are those in which we have extensive prior productivity, strong theoretical and empirical knowledge, service experience, implementation capacity and dedicated investigators needed to improve routine care for Veterans through a program of partnered research. They also reflect partnered research with potential for improving VA care through impact-oriented strategic planning. 

Primary Care

Women’s Health

High-Risk/High Need Populations

Our research in Primary care spans the center's 6 aims, and includes studies of the variations in VA primary care delivery, the multi-level (patient, provider, organizational) factors associated with VA primary care arrangements or performance, and the effectiveness of alternate primary care strategies and contributions to implementation science.

Our research in Women's Health has been foundational to VA research, practice and policy for over 15 years, from the first evaluation of how care is organized for women Veterans, to leading national development of the VA women's health research evidence base.

Our research on High-risk/High need Veteran groups spans serious mental illness (SMI), homelessness, substance use disorders (SUD), long-term care/aging, and acute care/patient safety.

Complementary and Integrative Medicine/Whole Health

 Specialty Care

Our research in Integrative Medicine includes studying and conducting quality improvement initiatives on a variety of complementary and alternative medicine treatments to improve pain, mood disorders, balance, quality of life, and other health conditions. Yoga, meditation, and acupuncture have been formally added to address chronic pain and may help tackle the opioid crisis.

This area is designed to support strategic planning to tackle issues in specialty care access, quality, and patient experience.