Research

CHERP equity research focuses on vulnerable veteran populations, including those who face potential discrimination because of race, ethnicity, or social status, and those at risk for disparities in health or health care due to other physical and/or mental conditions.  For equity research, CHERP uses a framework that recognizes three generations of health equity research: (1) detection of disparities in health and health care; (2) understanding the causes and mechanisms of these disparities; and (3) development and testing of interventions to reduce or eliminate disparities.

Newly funded projects include:

With a new HSR&D Merit Review Grant for “Impact of new technologies on chronic heart failure outcomes and costs in the VHA,” as well as QUERI funding, Peter Groeneveld, MD, MS, continues his work to improve medical outcomes for veterans with chronic heart failure (CHF) and to establish evidence-based models to determine the cost-effectiveness of new and emerging medical technology to treat CHF across the VHA.

Dr. Groeneveld is a member of the Executive Committee of the VA’s national Congestive Heart Failure Quality Enhancement Research Initiative, and the Scientific Advisory Committee for the VA’s Health Economics Resource Center (Menlo Park, CA).  He is also a member of a Research and Publications Subcommittee for the American College of Cardiology—he is the only non-cardiologist on the committee. 

Said Ibrahim, MD, MPH, has a new R01 grant funded by NIAMS.  This is a 5-year, orthopedics-based, health equity research project that builds on CHERP studies of variations in access and utilization of joint replacement in the management of end-stage osteoarthritis.  Dr. Gwo-Chin, an orthopedic surgeon at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia, serves as co-investigator on the grant. 

The National Institutes of Health has awarded Joseph Hanlon, MS, PharmD, funding for “Longitudinal Impact of Antihypertensive Polypharmacy on Geriatric Syndromes.”  The current renewal proposal can be expected to yield results for elders who receive interventions to reduce antihypertensive polypharmacy and reduce the occurrence of certain geriatric syndromes.

Steven Sayers, PhD, CHERP and MIRECC, received a Merit Award from VA HSR&D for a 4-year study to examine whether the presence of psychiatric problems of returning veterans complicates the family reintegration process of veterans returning from combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.