AHRQ T32 Health Services Research Training Awards
The Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ) funds this T32 training program to enhance the pipeline of OHSU health professionals in doctoral programs interested in health services research.
This program is available to both postdoctoral and predoctoral applicants.
Postdoctoral Program
Slots for postdocotoral fellowships are currently filled. When available, the request for applications will be announced to the community. This funding opportunity is for health professionals or doctorally-prepared health scientists to engage in mentored research -- usually for a minimum of two years.
Learn more about the AHRQ Postdoctoral Health Services Research program.
Predoctoral Program
Two slots are available yearly for students to engage in research for one year under the direction of a mentor selected by the student with a request for applications typically posted in the late fall. Students must be enrolled in a doctoral program at OHSU such as the MD, DMD, DNP, PharmD, nursing PhD and graduate PhD track programs. Students should propose a health services research experience under the guidance of a mentor or mentors.
Learn more about the AHRQ Predoctoral Health Services Research program.
Areas of Focus in Health Services Research
“Health services research is the multidisciplinary field of scientific investigation that studies how social factors, financing systems, organizational structures and processes, health technologies, and personal behaviors affect access to health care, the quality and cost of health care, and ultimately our health and well-being. Its research domains are individuals, families, organizations, institutions, communities, and populations.” --AcademyHealth, 2000
This training program relies on the areas of research strength within the health services research programs at OHSU and at the Kaiser Center for Health Research. Applicants should consider (but are not limited to) the following areas.
- Translating research policy into policy and practice. Translation of research findings into sustainable improvements in clinical outcomes and patient outcomes remains a substantial obstacle to improving the quality of care. Relevant research may help accelerate the impact of health services research on direct patient care, and improve the outcomes, quality, effectiveness, efficiency, and/or cost effectiveness of care through partnerships between health care organizations and researchers.
- Patient safety and quality. Research on patient safety and health care quality measurement, reporting, and improvement.
- Patient-centered Care. Redesign and evaluation of new care processes that lead to greater patient empowerment, improved patient-provider interaction, easier navigation through healthcare systems, and improved access, quality, and outcomes. This may involve electronic clinical communication, self-management programs, Web-based applications for patients and/or health care providers, and shared decision-making programs.
- Comparative effectiveness. Comparing the clinical effectiveness of medical treatments, so that both payers and providers of health care can make more informed coverage, payment, and patient-care decisions.
- Health Policy. Assessing and choosing among spending and resource alternatives that affect the health care system.
- Health Disparities. Gaps in the quality of health and health care across race and ethnicity, gender or geographic area.
The following major departments and centers are engaged in health services research. Please refer to department or center websites for additional information.
Department of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology
Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine
Oregon Evidence Based Practice Center (EPC): Primarily funded by AHRQ, this collaboration between OHSU, the Portland VA Medical Center, and KPCHR has received additional funding from the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the American Pain Society, the Institute of Medicine, the State of Oregon, a multi-state consortium, and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation among others. The charge is to conduct systematic reviews of healthcare topics for federal and state agencies and private foundations. These reviews report the evidence from clinical research studies and the quality of that evidence for use by policymakers in decisions on guidelines and coverage issues.
Health Services Research at the Center of Excellence in Women’s Health: The State Obstetrics and Pediatric Research Collaborative (STORC) team implements health IT structures, features, and tools that evaluate quality and safety. STORC is evaluating the value and impact of the following levels of implementation: inpatient only, integrated inpatient and outpatient, and fully integrated obstetric safety decision support tools. AHRQ-funded obstetric safety and simulation projects offer expertise for the development of practical therapeutic educational modules and evaluation of transmission to actual practice across a variety of practice settings (small to large, rural versus urban, primary care versus specialty based) through simulated clinical experiences.
Center for Policy and Research in Emergency Medicine (CPR-EM): This unique center was established to coordinate emergency medicine research projects that can help guide health care policy. The policy-relevant research of emergency medicine faculty includes research in medical ethics, emergency medical services/out-of-hospital care, and emergency care. Areas of special interest include evaluation of rural trauma systems, rapid pre-hospital recognition and treatment of cardiac illness by trained laypeople, access to medical care for vulnerable populations, patient safety, early detection of bioterrorism, emergency department overcrowding, poison centers as a community resource, informatics tools to facilitate public health reporting, interpersonal violence, injury prevention, and medical decision rules.
VA REAP in HSR: The Portland VA HSR&D REAP is entitled "Columbia Center for the Study of Chronic, Comorbid Mental and Physical Disorders." The center's mission is to conduct interdisciplinary research to improve care for veterans afflicted with both physical and mental disorders. It builds on extant research strengths and existing collaborations between mental health and internal medicine. The goals of the Columbia Center are to expand the capacity to conduct, publish and disseminate high quality health services research.
Oregon Rural Practice-based Research Network (ORPRN): This statewide network of primary care clinicians, community partners, and academicians dedicated to research into delivery of health care to rural residents and research to reduce rural health disparities. ORPRN encompasses 37 practices in 31 rural communities. ORPRN research covers a wide range including medication safety, child behavioral health, adult mental health, pregnancy and nutrition, dementia, osteoporosis, clinician workforce issues, provision of preventive services and immunization practices.
CORI: CORI was developed to obtain data in a nationwide repository to improve the clinical practice of gastrointestinal endoscopy. Today, 65 adult practice sites in 28 states, representing 500 physicians, submit more than 250,000 reports annually to the repository. CORI supports prospective clinical studies based upon this large data repository.
