Research News

HSR&D Announces New Mechanism for Accelerating Research in VA Priority Areas

August 22, 2019

HSR&D is pleased to announce the funding of two COnsortia of REsearch (COREs): Suicide Prevention and Opioid Reduction and Pain Management. The goal of the COREs is to accelerate research that will lead to measurable improvements in the care delivered to Veterans in each of these priority areas. COREs will support this goal by:

• Reviewing the current HSR&D research portfolio, research agendas and solicitations from other Federal partners;
• Developing an inclusive network of researchers collaborating to further evidence in these areas;
• Coordinating with partners to identify data resources, data needs, and potential research priorities;
• Facilitating the development and execution of research to address priority goals with a view to implementation and working with QUERI to identify best practices; and
• Developing annual milestones noted in an annual report – and disseminating the progress and impacts of research in the designated priority areas.

Suicide Prevention Research Impact NeTwork (SPRINT)

The overall goal of this CORE is to accelerate suicide prevention research that will lead to improvements in care, and that will ultimately result in reductions in suicide behaviors among Veterans. SPRINT’s Principal Investigators are: Steven Dobscha, MD, Director, HSR&D’s Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care (CIVIC); Mark Ilgen, PhD, Research Career Scientist, HSR&D’s Center for Clinical Management (CCMR); and Teresa Hudson, PhD, PharmD, Associate Director of HSR&D’s Center for Mental Healthcare & Outcomes Research (CeMHOR).

Steven Dobscha, MD

Mark Ilgen, PhD

Teresa Hudson, PhD, PharmD

Pain/Opioid CORE

The overall goal of this CORE is to foster high-quality, high-impact, and Veteran-centered research focused on improving care for and reducing opioid harms by building a network of researchers and promoting interdisciplinary, cross-institutional research collaborations. The Pain/Opioid CORE Principal Investigators are: Alicia Heapy, PhD, Associate Director of HSR&D’s Pain Research, Informatics, Multimorbidities, and Education (PRIME) Center; William Becker, MD, core investigator with PRIME; and Erin Krebs, MD, MPH, core investigator with HSR&D’s Center for Care Delivery and Outcomes Research (CCDOR).

Alicia Heapy, PhD

William Becker, MD

Erin Krebs, MD, MPH