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Research Highlight

Wilt Receives 2014 Under Secretary's Award

Timothy J. Wilt, M.D., M.P.H., is the recipient of the 2014 Under Secretary's Award for Outstanding Achievement in Health Services Research, the highest honor for a VA health services researcher.

Dr. Wilt has made significant contributions to VA health care through his research, particularly in his efforts to synthesize evidence in order to provide clarity on issues of importance to Veterans' health. Dr. Wilt's Prostate Cancer Intervention Versus Observation Trial (PIVOT), with results published in The New England Journal of Medicine, demonstrated the lack of benefit and increased harms associated with radical prostatectomy in localized prostate cancer compared to observation, thus having immediate implications for the 10,000 Veterans diagnosed with prostate cancer in VA each year. These findings were incorporated into practice guidelines issued by VA and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the American College of Physicians, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the American and European Urological Associations.

Dr. Wilt is a Professor of Medicine and staff physician at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System and University of Minnesota Medical School; he is also a core investigator with HSR&D's Center for Chronic Disease Outcomes Research, also located in Minneapolis.