March 2017

In this Issue: VA Healthcare for Women Veterans
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Women Veterans Healthcare CREATE

Feature Article

HSR&D developed an innovative funding initiative titled "Collaborative Research to Enhance and Advance Transformation and Excellence (CREATE)", which encourages its investigators to collaborate with VA partners in conducting research on high-priority VA healthcare issues. Funded CREATEs focus on topics that include PTSD, rural Veterans, long-term care, and improving access to substance use disorder treatments, to name a few.

The Women Veterans Healthcare CREATE conducts research to examine the essential factors that facilitate (or slow) the pace, effectiveness and outcomes of delivery of comprehensive care for women Veterans. This CREATE works closely with several operational partners, such as the Office of Women's Health Services, the Office of Mental Health Services, the Office of Patient Care Services (PCS), the Office of Specialty Care Services (SCS), and VHA's Office of Community Care.

The Women Veterans Healthcare CREATE currently includes projects with topics ranging from the attrition of women Veterans new to VA healthcare to the effectiveness of using technology (i.e., virtual consultation and education) to provide support for primary care providers treating women Veterans in community-based outpatient clinics (CBOCs). Investigators also are testing evidence-based quality improvement approaches to adapting PACT (Patient Aligned Care Teams) features to women Veterans' needs - and measuring national levels of comprehensive care implementation across VA medical centers and CBOCs.

For more information about the Women Veterans Healthcare CREATE, please contact Director Elizabeth Yano, PhD, MSPH, at Elizabeth.Yano@va.gov .