Center for Care Delivery and Outcomes Research

News and Recognition

Elisheva Danan and colleague’s Pap Hub and Spoke Program selected as 2023 VHA Shark Tank finalist for impact on cervical cancer screening (Aug. 2023)

Dr. Elisheva Danan and her team were selected as a finalist out of 355 applicants in the 2023 VHA Shark Tank Competition for their Pap Hub and Spoke Program, described in “A Systems Based Approach to Improve Cervical Cancer Screening in the VA.” To date, there are 4 VA sites actively using the Pap Hub Spoke program, including the Minneapolis VA, and an additional site is in progress of implementing the program. Since July 2022, the number of patients overdue for cervical cancer screening at the Minneapolis VA was reduced by 30, and there was an improvement in adherence to ASCCP guidelines from an error rate of 8.7% to 2.6%. The PapHub team won the VA Women’s Health Research Impact Award in September 2023 for this work.

Awards

• Anne Melzer received the Early Stage Investigator Project Award during Research Week at the Minneapolis VA
• Allison Gustavson was awarded the Dorothy Briggs Memorial Scientific Inquiry Award which recognizes authors whose work have made measurable contribution to the knowledge base of physical therapy
• Jillian Fish, CCDOR HSR&D Fellow, won top prize at 2022 Frank Conference ($10,000 Research Prize awarded annually by the University of Florida Center for Public Interest Communications) for her research on Narratives for Native People. This prize celebrates peer-reviewed research from disciplines that span behavioral, cognitive and social sciences that inform the growing discipline of public interest communications
• Jillian Fish, CCDOR HSR&D Fellow, 2021 recipient of the Emerging Voices in Indigenous Scholarship/Researcher Award (funded by the UMN’s Grand Challenges)
• Jillian Fish, CCDOR HSR&D Fellow, 2021 recipient of the Jeffrey S. Tanaka Memorial Dissertation award
• Agnes Jensen, CCDOR Health Science Specialist, was awarded 2021 Civil Servant of the Year
• Dr. Hildi Hagedorn, CCDOR core investigator, recently earned the HSR&D Health System Impact Award for her work to increase the implementation of evidence-based treatments for Veterans with substance use disorders. https://www.hsrd.research.va.gov/for_researchers/awards/hsrd_awards/awardees.cfm?award=2504
• Beth DeRonne, a Pharmacist on several CCDOR studies, was awarded 2019 Civil Servant of the Year

Recent CCDOR Headlines

• A new study published in JAMA found that the evidence-based Tobacco Longitudinal Care (TLC) program was most effective without adaptation and was feasibly integrated into lung cancer screening. Read more here: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2808739
• Identifying factors associated with spirometry underutilization to guide health care initiatives to improve COPD care quality by Arianne Baldomero, here: https://www.physiciansweekly.com/factors-linked-with-spirometry-underutilization-in-copd/
• A Randomized Clinical Trial indicates that 7 days of antibiotics was noninferior to 14 days for treatment of men with UTI, including those with significant comorbidities. Read more about the trial conducted by Dr. Dimitri M. Drekonja, here:  https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2782300 
• Dr. Nina Sayer, in collaboration with the National Center for PTSD Mentoring Program, the HSR&D PERSIST program team measured and improved the reach of evidence-based psychotherapies (EBPs) for Veterans with PTSD. PERSIST Program Improves Access to Evidence-Based Treatment for PTSD among Veterans (va.gov)
• Dr. Anne Melzer, CCDOR core investigator, was interviewed by the New York Times about potential links between smoking, vaping, and COVID-19 disease severity. Vaping Links to Covid Risk Are Becoming Clear - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
• June is PTSD awareness month. Shannon Kehle-Forbes was invited to speak about her research in PTSD on a podcast that was posted to the HSR&D website and their iTunes channel: https://www.hsrd.research.va.gov/news/podcasts/listen.cfm?ID=1064.
• Hildi Hagedorn and Adam Gordon promoted the Stepped Care for Opioid Use Disorder Train-the-Trainer (SCOUTT) Initiative on the VA Clinical Pharmacy Practice Office podcast and spoke about their perspective on opportunities for clinical pharmacy practice in the VA for treating opioid and other substance use disorders.
• Congrats to Minneapolis VA’s Center for Veterans Research and Education’s Dr. Shannon Kehle-Forbes who has been approved for PCORI funding for her research on PTSD and Substance Use Disorder research! Link to press release.
• Research shows smokers can quit before they are ready. Read about media coverage of research conducted by Elisheva Danan, MD, MPH and colleagues on Veterans who smoke. Link to news article on Star Tribune: http://www.startribune.com/smokers-can-quit-before-they-re-ready-va-study-says/378366471
• Hanna Bloomfield, MD and the Minneapolis VA Evidence-based Synthesis Program conducted a systematic review which showed that a Mediterranean diet may reduce the risk of breast cancer, cardiovascular events and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Link to news article on CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/18/health/high-fat-mediterranean-diet-benefits/
• Timothy Wilt, MD and his team conducted a 19.5-year follow-up of a cohort of 731 men with localized prostate cancer which showed that surgery was not associate with significantly lower all-cause or prostate-cancer mortality than observation. Link to news article on U.S. News: https://health.usnews.com/health-care/articles/2017-07-13/observation-best-option-for-most-low-risk-prostate-cancer
• Erin Krebs, MD and her team conducted a pivotal randomized control trial of 240 patients with chronic pain which showed that over 12 months, the treatment of moderate to severe pain with opioids was no better than that of nonopioid medications. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2673971

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