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VA HSR&D Establishes New Resource Center to Support Implementation Research and Practice

VA's HSR&D and QUERI work to facilitate improvements in the quality, performance, and outcomes of the VA health care delivery system by applying health services research to significant problems and by creating and implementing evidence and evidence-based practices.

VA's efforts to apply research to improve quality were strengthened in October 2008 with the establishment of a new QUERI resource center, the VA Center for Implementation Practice and Research Support (CIPRS). CIPRS pursues a two-part mission, aiming to strengthen implementation research and to strengthen implementation and quality improvement practice within VA. This mission is accomplished via a portfolio of programs and services that include consultation, technical assistance, and education.

CIPRS is led by Brian Mittman, Ph.D., and is based at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. Center co-directors are David Aron, M.D., M.S. (Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center), and Gary Rosenthal, M.D. (Iowa City VA Medical Center).

CIPRS aims to:

• Improve VA's implementation research capacity and performance; and
• Enhance quality improvement and implementation practice within the VA health care delivery system.

CIPRS Programs and Services

The CIPRS portfolio has been shaped by a series of needs assessment interviews and surveys designed to gather information regarding VA policy and practice leaders' and VA researchers' needs and preferences. The resulting portfolio is depicted in the accompanying figure, and described on the CIPRS website (http://www.queri.research.va.gov/ciprs).

The CIPRS Portfolio

Highlights of CIPRS programs include:

• A monthly Implementation Practice Cyber Seminar Series offering presentations on state-of-the-art topics in implementation practice, aimed at a clinical audience; and a monthly Implementation Research Cyber Seminar Series presenting topics of interest to implementation researchers.
• A telephone and web-based helpline offering one-on-one consultation to VA implementation researchers.
• Seminars, workshops, conference presentations, and research "clinic" sessions offering guidance and assistance to novice and experienced implementation researchers.
• A series of quality improvement, evaluation, and implementation resource toolkits under development that will offer guidance for VA clinical and quality improvement leaders who wish to use implementation and quality improvement research to improve quality and performance.
• An extensive web-based Implementation Research Resource Clearinghouse (under development) featuring an overview of the field and extensive tools and resources for planning, conducting, and reporting implementation and quality improvement projects. Resources will include evaluation tools, compendiums, or implementation theories and theoretical frameworks, annotated listings of funding programs, conferences, training resources, and more.

CIPRS also contributes to the continued development of the field of implementation science through "Theory and Methods Development" projects designed to develop, test, and refine new methods and measures, new theoretical frameworks, and approaches and other resources. CIPRS contributes to improved quality and performance in VA through direct collaboration and support for specific VA quality improvement initiatives. For example, CIPRS is collaborating with VA's Office of Quality and Performance and Systems Redesign program in developing evaluation frameworks and tools for VA quality improvement staff. CIPRS will also evaluate national implementation of selected clinical programs and innovations.

Collaborations with Non-VA Entities

CIPRS seeks to contact and collaborate with like-minded researchers and research groups outside VA, to identify common interests and goals, and pursue opportunities for mutually beneficial interactions. CIPRS collaborations with non-VA implementation research programs will facilitate HSR&D and QUERI researchers' ability to follow and learn from advances in other sectors, and will help recruit outside collaborators in developing the Implementation Research Resource Clearinghouse.