Center for Care Delivery and Outcomes Research

News and Recognition

2019 Civil Servant of the Year included CCDOR's very own Beth DeRonne!

Beth DeRonne (right) with her supervisor, Erin Krebs, MD

Every year, select individuals from all Federal agencies in Minnesota are recognized as Civil Servant of the Year for their superior performance and dedicated Federal service. Here is Dr. DeRonne's nomination: Beth DeRonne works as a Pharmacist on several CCDOR studies, and knows how to get things done at the VA.  She is kind as she answers questions about side-effects or strategies the vets might use to quit smoking or deal with their pain. Recently, a veteran had called and was uncomfortable due to changes in the his medications and had not been sleeping well. He was in pain and was thinking of killing himself. While keeping the veteran on the phone, Beth alerted a coworker and continued to assist with the emergency staff until they could get him safely out of his house. Beth calmly explained why this was necessary, answered his questions and diffused the situation.

CCDOR in the News

• 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
• Erin Krebs, MD briefed a room full of Hill staff on her landmark opioid study published in JAMA during an event sponsored by Friends of VA Medical Care and Health Research: https://www.hsrd.research.va.gov/news/research_news/va-research-on-the-hill-060518.cfm
• Erin Krebs, MD, is the recipient of the 2018 HSR&D Best Research Paper of the Year Award for her paper comparing opioids to stepped care non-opioid therapy. https://www.hsrd.research.va.gov/for_researchers/awards/hsrd_awards/awardees.cfm?award=2110

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