Research News

HSRD Announces New Access and Community Care CORE

July 21, 2023

Health Services Research and Development (HSRD) is pleased to announce the funding of a new COnsortia of REsearch (CORE) on access and community care – the Access and Community Care Engagement Network Team (ACCENT) CORE.

One of the top priorities of the Veterans Health Administration is to “connect Veterans to the soonest and best care.” HSRD is committed to supporting this priority. For many years, it has been funding research focused on improving access to care for Veterans in the direct and community care settings. This new CORE builds upon the prior work of the Community Care Research Evaluation and Knowledge (CREEK) Center and the Veterans Access Research Consortium (VARC). The goal is to focus on the intersections of care—in-person care, community care, and virtual care, as well as direct VA and community care — to better understand what care type is best for each Veteran, for each condition, irrespective of where the Veteran lives.

To help achieve this, the CORE will support six main functions pertaining to access and community care:

• Reviewing recent research investments and identifying new research priorities
• Developing partnerships to identify their short- and long-term research priorities
• Building a national network of researchers interested in access and community care
• Facilitating access to necessary data and improving quality data critical to CORE research
• Identifying patient perspectives on access and community care through Veteran engagement efforts; and
• Synthesizing and communicating research information and impacts to critical audiences.

The ACCENT CORE Principal Investigators are: Kristin Mattocks, PhD, MPH, ACOS/Research and Education, VA Central Western Massachusetts Healthcare System; Megan Vanneman, PhD, MPH, Core Investigator, Informatics, Decision-Enhancement and Analytic Sciences Center (IDEAS), VA Salt Lake City Health Care System; Michelle A. Mengeling, PhD, MS, Core Investigator, Center for Access & Delivery Research and Evaluation (CADRE) & the Office of Rural Health, Veterans Rural Health Resource Center – Iowa City (VRHRC-IC), Iowa City VA Health Care System; Amy Rosen, PhD, VA Senior Research Career Scientist, VA Boston Healthcare System, Center for Healthcare Organization and Implementation Research (CHOIR); and Denise M. Hynes, MPH, PhD, RN, VA Senior Research Career Scientist, Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care (CIVIC), VA Portland Healthcare System, Portland, OR. Additionally, the ACCENT CORE will work closely with Stephanie Shimada, PhD, Center for Healthcare Organization and Implementation Research (CHOIR), VA Bedford Healthcare System, Bedford VA, as a co-investigator and former lead of the Veterans Access Research Consortium (VARC).

For more information, please contact Dr. Mattocks at kristin.mattocks@va.gov .

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