Eugene Oddone, M.D., director of the VA Center of Excellence for Health Services Research in Primary Care in Durham, N.C., received the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Award for Outstanding Achievement in Health Services Research at the February 16, 2006 VA Health Services Research and Development national meeting in Washington, DC.

The award recognizes accomplishment in the study and research of health care delivery that significantly adds to the understanding of factors affecting the health of America's veterans and leads to major improvements in the quality of veterans' health care.

At the award presentation, Dr. Oddone was recognized for his innovation in health services research and his examination of ways to improve quality of care, reduce racial disparities in health care and foster self-management among chronic disease patients.

His most recent work in identifying reasons for racial disparities in access and use of health care was described as instrumental in establishing an important new research agenda.

Dr. Oddone has served as director of the VA Center of Excellence for Health Services Research in Primary Care for the past eight years. During that time, the number of investigators and amount of peer-reviewed funding at the center has increased significantly. He was cited for developing one of VA's most successful interdisciplinary research groups and for fostering productive research collaboration between the Durham VA Medical Center, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University.