Building Strong Research Partnerships Between Public Health and Researchers: A VA Case Study

Midboe, Amanda M.; Elwy, A. Rani; Durfee, Janet; Gifford, Allen L.; Yakovchenko, Vera; Martinello, Richard A.; Czarnogorski, Maggie; Goetz, Matthew Bidwell; Asch, Steven M.

doi:10.1007/s11606-014-3017-4

Cited by 10 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 13 publications

(10 reference statements)

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“…The published literature is rapidly expanding with examples of partnership models where researchers work closely with health providers and organizations. 1,4,7,10,14,16,22 This study focused on the partnership experiences within the VA (a large, complex health system) and corroborates many of the previous findings on challenges and facilitators to these research–operations partnerships (e.g., balancing rigorous methods with flexibility in applied research, establishing a research reputation and publishing at the same time as improving patient care, and handling divergences in timelines). In addition, the current study makes a unique contribution by uncovering additional building blocks for successful partnering that to date have not been so clearly represented in the published literature (e.g., reducing research bureaucracy burdens, the importance of in-person communication, ‘perspective-taking’, and overcoming the need for recognition to be attributed between researchers and operations).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

“…Through national level QUERI program management and local facility-based QUERI centers, QUERI encourages research investigators to partner with operations to produce research findings, and implement interventions and best practices in a resource-constrained health care environment. 13 A growing body of work is beginning to identify challenges as well as factors linked to success in researchoperations partnerships, 1,3,[6][7][8]10,[14][15][16][17][18] but knowledge of additional building blocks that can facilitate successful partnering is needed. For instance, because many researchers simultaneously hold university academic appointments (and face expectations for producing publications as a part of the academic reward system), early evidence suggests the ways in which divergence in incentives might affect partnership relationships and create difficulties, especially for junior researchers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Partnering to improve care: the case of the Veterans’ Health Administration’s Quality Enhancement Research Initiative

Bergman

Delevan

Miake-Lye³

et al. 2017

J Health Serv Res Policy

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Background Within many large health care organizations, researchers and operations partners (i.e., policymakers, managers, clinical leaders) join to conduct studies to improve the quality of patient care. Yet optimal approaches to conducting partnership research and evaluation are only beginning to be clearly defined. The Veterans' Health Administration (VA) Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI), funded by operations leaders and administered by the VA's research service, now has nearly two decades of experience in fostering research-operations partnerships for improving quality of VA care. The work reported here is part of a national evaluation of QUERI. Because individuals in research and operations often have differing backgrounds and perspectives, we aim to identify the main sources of tension in research-operations partnerships and strategies for maximizing partnership success, through the eyes of QUERI participants. Methods We conducted semi-structured interviews with 116 researchers and operations partners chosen randomly from within pre-identified key participant groups. We conducted inductive qualitative analysis of verbatim interview transcripts, limited to the 89 interviews of individuals reporting at least some familiarity with QUERI. Results Tensions in research-operations partnerships were primarily related to diverging incentives and to differing values placed on scientific rigor or integrity versus quick timelines. To alleviate these tensions, operations' partners highlighted the importance of 'perspective-taking' (i.e., putting themselves into the shoes of the researchers) to ensure a mutually beneficial and attractive partnership, whereas researchers identified the importance of overcoming the need for recognition to be apportioned between either research or operations for achieved results. Both researchers and operations participants identified jointly designing each partnership from the beginning, minimizing research bureaucracy burdens, and prioritizing in-person communication and long-term relationships as key partnership building blocks. Conclusions QUERI research and operations participants had largely concordant views on partnership tensions and approaches for improving partnership success. The fact that only researchers mentioned moving beyond recognition for the results achieved and only operations staff mentioned the importance of 'perspective-taking' suggests, however, that there may be unresolved tensions. These results suggest that researchers may benefit from better aligning of academic incentives with contributions to the health care organization and establishing formal recognition of operational impacts of research, while preserving some flexibility and independence of the research process.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Partnering to improve care: the case of the Veterans’ Health Administration’s Quality Enhancement Research Initiative

Bergman

Delevan

Miake-Lye³

et al. 2017

J Health Serv Res Policy

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“…Available frameworks suggest structures for partnerships, [13][14][15][16] and literature promotes broad principles such as addressing issues of power and equity [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] and developing relationships of trust. [20][21][22][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] However, it can be difficult for teams, particularly those new to this type of work, to operationalize abstract structures and principles in the specific context of their research project.In this article, we draw from our collective years of experience as patients, caregivers, clinicians, other stakeholders and academic researchers in partnered projects to offer 12 practical lessons we have learned about how to better conduct partnered research. These lessons are intended for all people working in such projects, including patients, caregivers, clinicians, researchers, policymakers, and others.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Twelve Lessons Learned for Effective Research Partnerships Between Patients, Caregivers, Clinicians, Academic Researchers, and Other Stakeholders

Witteman

Dansokho

Colquhoun³

et al. 2018

J GEN INTERN MED

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Research increasingly means that patients, caregivers, health professionals, other stakeholders, and academic investigators work in partnership. This requires effective collaboration rooted in mutual respect, involvement of all participants, and good communication.Having conducted such partnered research over multiple projects, and having recently completed a project together funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, we collaboratively developed a list of 12 lessons we have learned about how to ensure effective research partnerships. To foster a culture of mutual respect, hold early in-person meetings, with introductions focused on motivation, offer appropriate orientation for everyone, and maintain awareness of individual and project goals. To actively involve all team members, it is important to ensure sufficient funding for everyone's participation, to ask for and recognize diverse contributions, and to seek the input of quiet members. To facilitate good communication, teams should carefully consider labels, avoid jargon and acronyms, judiciously use homogeneous and heterogeneous subgroups, and keep progress visible. In offering pragmatic, actionable lessons we have learned through our separate and shared experiences, we hope to help foster more patient-centered research via productive and enjoyable research collaborations. INTRODUCTIONHealth research teams increasingly include patients, caregivers, clinicians, and other stakeholders whose primary careers are not health research. This may occur because team leaders are convinced of the merits of such an approach, because funders or publishers require it, or both. 1-4 Such partnerships are intended to increase the relevance of research to those who might benefit from it and thus to reduce research waste. 5 This is an excellent and laudable aim; however, there is relatively little practical guidance available about how to effectively conduct such partnered research.Previous reviews and evaluations demonstrate four points about conducting partnered research. First, research teams with patients, caregivers, and other stakeholder team members tend to involve these stakeholders more at earlier stages in the project than at later stages. 6,7 Second, people coming into projects without a research background may require orientation in order to participate fully. 8 Third, benefits of partnership may be difficult to formally assess. 9 Fourth, time requirements are a frequent concern for everyone. 7,10 These reviews offer valuable evidence syntheses relevant to partnership, as do recommendations from long-standing traditions of methods 558JGIM such as community-based participatory research 11 and participatory action research. 12 However, as partnered research expands across research types and funding opportunities, more people are engaging in team structures that are new to them. Available frameworks suggest structures for partnerships, [13][14][15][16] and literature promotes broad principles such as addressing issues of power and equity [17][18][19...

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“…Finally, during preimplementation, it is vital for stakeholders to establish open lines of communication related to the implementation process38 and have a shared understanding of the populations affected, implementation plan, resources required, and persons who will “own” implementation efforts over time 21,38,39…”

Section: Preimplementationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quality Enhancement Research Initiative Implementation Roadmap

et al. 2019

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Building Strong Research Partnerships Between Public Health and Researchers: A VA Case Study

Cited by 10 publications

References 13 publications

Partnering to improve care: the case of the Veterans’ Health Administration’s Quality Enhancement Research Initiative

Partnering to improve care: the case of the Veterans’ Health Administration’s Quality Enhancement Research Initiative

Twelve Lessons Learned for Effective Research Partnerships Between Patients, Caregivers, Clinicians, Academic Researchers, and Other Stakeholders

Quality Enhancement Research Initiative Implementation Roadmap

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