January 2025
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| Russell Rothman, MD, MPP; Lyndsay Nelson, PhD; and Lindsay Mayberry, MS, PhD will be conducting research using the $26.4 million from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) awarded to VUMC to identify optimal approaches to improving health care and health outcomes for patients, families, and the community. Dr. Rothman is the PI for the award granted to the VUMC-based Stakeholders, Technology and Research clinical research network. Dr. Nelson and Dr. Mayberry are the PIs of an award focused on developing and evaluating research engagement methods. Congratulations! |
In December 2024, Dr. Sunil Kripalani presented as part of a panel at the 17th Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation in Arlington, Va. This panel shared insights from four institutions participating in PCORI's Health System Implementation Initiative (HSII) that pursued projects designed to build their capacity to engage in implementation research. Dr. Kripalani shared projects at VUMC that included developing the skills of frontline leads in QI methods, creating best practice toolkits for implementation strategies, and building common experience across data analytics teams in utilizing data sources for program evaluation. Congratulations!
December 2024
 | Katherine Musacchio Schafer, PhD, MS, MEd, will be conducting qualitative interviews with physicians, nurses, and social workers at VUMC to formulate more effective methods for providing mental health care to patients at high risk of suicide. Dr Schafer received funding from the American Psychological Foundation through the Practice Based Evidence Award. Congratulations! |
November 2024
 | Jenny Slaton, DNP, RN will lead the pediatric PCORI funded implementation project to improve antibiotic prescribing for childhood respiratory infections at outpatient clinics and emergency department affiliated with VUMC. This project seeks to decrease antibiotic prescriptions for these infections by 5 percent and formulate shorter courses of treatment. Congratulations! |
 | Amanda Mixon, MD, MPH, MS is the site principle investigator of a newly funded R01 project, "Deprescribing decision-making using machine learning individualized treatment rules to improve CNS polypharmacy," from the NIA. Dr. Juliessa Pavon at Duke is the overall PI, and the other participating sites include Duke and MUSC. The study will develop a deprescribing individualized treatment rule (ITR) model for older adults with CNS medication polypharmacy aimed at reducing deprescribing outcomes such as injurious fall events, cognitive disorders, hospitalizations, and adverse drug withdrawal events. Once the model is developed, the next step will be to co-design a machine-learning-based clinical interface as a tool to guide providers on individualized deprescribing medication choices using user-centered-design principles and qualitative interviews to inform tool development and user understanding and trust of ML-based tools. Congratulations! |
October 2024
 | Michael Ward, PhD, MBA will co-lead the Emergency Medicine Analytics Team (EMAT), an effort by the VHA Office of Rural Health to improve health care for rural veterans. EMAT's initial activities will concentrate on two primary domains: access to acute services, including evaluations of virtual programs; and community care utilization and quality of emergency care, with the focus on evidence based risk, stratification and prescribing quality for common conditions. Read more. Congratulations! |
 |  | Caroline Audet, PhD, MSci, and Sunil Kripalani, MD, MSc were awarded two five-year grants totaling $12 million to support VUMC's participation in and coordination of a genomic-enabled learning health system (gLHS) network from the National Genome Research Institute. Dr. Audet is a co-PI of the coordinating center grant and Dr. Kripalani is a co-PI of the clinical site grant. Read more. Congratulations! |
September 2024
 | Lyndsey Nelson, PhD was an invited speaker at the NIDDK Workshop on the Application of Digital Health Technology to the Management of Type 2 Diabetes that took place Sept. 5-6, 2024. Her presentation was on "Digital navigation: Assessing and Addressing Digital Literacy Barriers." Congratulations! |
 |  | Lucy Spalluto, MD, MPH and Jennifer Lewis, MD, MPH were honored with the inaugural VA Quality Scholars Alumni Team Award. Congratulations! |
August 2024
 | Robert Dittus, MD, MPH is the 2024 recipient of the David M. Worthen Career Achievement Award, which is amongst the most prestigious educational awards presented by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). This award recognizes an outstanding health professions trainee education champion whose lifetime contributions have profoundly advanced and had widespread impact on the educational mission of VHA. Dr. Dittus has developed and led innovative research and quality improvement training programs for the past 40 years, and his curricular design for research training has been adapted broadly. Congratulations! |
July 2024
| Caroline Audet, PhD has been selected for the 2024 cohort of Chancellor Faculty Fellows. Each fellow holds the title for two years and receives $40,000 per year to support their work. They meet with their cohorts to exchange ideas on teaching and research and to build a broader intellectual community that advances collaborative scholarship and engaging academic leadership development to increase their leadership of capacity. Congratulations! |
 | | Christianne Roumi, MD, MH; Lucy Spalluto, MD, MPH; and Michael Matheney, MD, MS, MPH were selected for funding to establish a new center of innovation (COIN) for VA Health Services Research. VETWISE-LHS (Veterans Wellbeing through Innovation, Systems Science and Experience in Learning Health Systems) will support investigators in advancing VA research to improve veteran health. Congratulations! |
 | Deonni Stolldorf, PhD, RN will be the School of Nursing's newest American Academy of Nursing fellow. Dr. Stolldorf joined VUSN in 2015 after finishing the VA Quality Scholars two-year post doctoral fellowship with the Tennessee Valley Healthcare System. Her work focuses on how to implement and sustain complex, multilevel, interdisciplinary health care interventions. Congratulations! |
June 2024
 |  | Muktar Aliyu, MD, DrPH, MPH and Elisa J. Gordon, PhD, MPH are PIs on a collaborative effort to address the growing demand for research and precision medicine in Africa. The team has received a five-year, $1.2 million training grant from the Fogarty International Center for an innovative research ethic streaming program. Congratulations! |
 | Ruth Kleinpell, PhD, RN, FAAN has received the Pioneering Spirit Award by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN). This award recognizes contributions that influence acute and critical-care nursing. Successful applicants exemplify a pioneering spirit, influencing the direction of acute and critical-care nursing. The recipient addresses or resolves a significant issue facing acute and critical-care nursing on a regional or national scale. Congratulations! |
May 2024
 |  | L. Dupree Hatch III, MD, MPH, and C. William Wester, MD, MPH have been recognized by the 2024 School of Medicine Faculty Awards for Extraordinary Performance of Clinical Services. Dr. Hatch received the Mildred T. Stahlman award for Innovation in Clinical Care. Dr. Wester received the John L. Tarpley award for Commitment to Care of Underserved Communities. Congratulations! |
 |  | Emily Morrow, PhD and Nadia Markie Sneed, PhD, MSN, FNP-BC have been selected as Vanderbilt Faculty Research Scholars. Dr. Morrow has received a three-year VFRS award to support mixed methods research aimed and understanding the unique needs of adults with cognitive dysfunction in managing diabetes to inform the development of adaptive behavioral interventions. Dr. Sneed has received a three-year VFRS KL2 award to support her project: Whole Foods for Families. This is a 12-week pilot RCT of a family-centered diet intervention to treat adult-onset prediabetes and improve quality and families at risk for type 2 diabetes. Congratulations! |
| Carolyne Audet, PhD will lead a study team funded by a five-year, $2.8 million grant to expand healer-initiated HIV testing and linkage to care in South Africa. The team will conduct a cluster randomized control trial comparing healer-initiated HIV counseling and testing to the standard of care in rural South Africa by utilizing an existing and trusted resource: traditional healers. Congratulations! |
April 2024
| Sunil Kripalani, MD, MSc has been named Vice President for Health System Sciences at VUMC, where he will lead and support activities aimed at implementing and evaluating innovations in patient care and population health. Dr. Kripalani has also been appointed to a three-year term on the National Advisory Council of the AHRQ to aid in guiding national priorities for health services research. Congratulations! |
| Caroline Audet, PhD was selected to serve as a track co-lead for the Behavioral Health track at the 17th Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation, taking place Dec. 8-11, 2024. In this role, she will define the focus for the track coordinate peer review of abstracts, and chair a session in the track. Congratulations! |
March 2024
| Amanda Mixon, MD, MS, MSPH was selected to serve as a track co-lead for Clinical Care Settings – System-Level Interventions at the 17th Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation taking place Dec. 8-11, 2024. In this role, she will define the focus for the track, coordinate peer review of abstracts, and chair a session in the track. Congratulations! |
February 2024
|  | Cristianne Roumi, MD, MPH; Russell Rothman, MD, MPP; and Peter Embí, MD, MS, are PIs on a $5 million grant from AHRQ and PCORI to establish a new center for Learning Health System scientists: Realizing Accelerated Progress, Investigation, Implementation, and Dissemination in Learning Health Systems (RAPID-LHS) Center. Sunil Kripalani, MD, MSC is a co-investigator on the award. Full article here. Congratulations! |
| | Mike Ward, MD, PhD, MBA; Sunil Kripalani, MD, MSC; and Alan Storrow, MD are PIs on a T32 grant from NHLBI to establishe the Vanderbilt Interdisciplinary Hospital-based Systems of Care Research Training Program (VISTA). VISTA will train two or three postdoctoral investigators per year with a focus on patient-oriented and health systems research for acute heart, lung, or blood disorders in the hospital setting. Congratulations! |
| | Jennifer Lewis, MD, MS, MPH was awarded a VA Merit Award to assess lung cancer incidence in veterans who meet broadened eligibility, criteria, including military toxic exposures, and to test a combined biomarker and radiomics approach to reduce the time to lung cancer diagnosis and the number of invasive procedures. Christianne Roumi, MD, MPH and Robert Dittus, MD, MPH are co-investigators on the project. Dr. Lewis and Lucy Spalluto, MD, MPH were awarded funding from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation for expansion of sites in the VA Merit and to develop and pilot-test veteran-centric tools to increase veteran engagement and lung cancer screening. Caroline Audet, PhD is a co-investigator on the project. Congratulations! |
November 2023
 | | Sunil Kripalani, MD MSc, and Lyndsay Nelson, PhD, have been awarded $1.6 million in NIH funding for: Multilevel initiative to address social drivers of health and clinical practice as a research project in the P50 Southeast Collaborative for innovative and equitable solutions to chronic disease disparities, led by Dr. Consuelo Wilkins. Read the article here. Congratulations. |
October 2023
 | Leanne Boehm, PhD, RN has been chosen as the 2023 VA Quality Scholars Rising Star. This national award recognizes outstanding accomplishments in health care improvement and patient safety by VAQS alumni within five years of graduation from the fellowship. Congratulations! |
 | Dan France, PhD, MPH is the MPI of a new R01 award from NICHD entitled: Measuring NICU nurse practitioner workload in real time to improve care quality and patient safety. CCQIR member Dupree Hatch, MD, MPH is a co-investigator on the grant. Congratulations! |
 | Lori Novak, PhD, MHSA and Peter Embí, MD, MS were awarded a grant from the Moore Foundation working with collaborators from Duke AI Health, the University of Iowa, and the Coalition for Health AI Network. The grant aims to support the creation and initial validation of standardized benchmarking tools to enable health systems to internally identify strengths and weaknesses for the development and deployment of AI technology. Congratulations! |
August 2023
 | Matthew Mart, MD, MSCI, has received a perfect score on his NIH K23 grant proposal on ICU rehabilitation and recovery of physical function. Dr. Mart is an instructor in medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care and a recent VA Quality Scholar graduate. Congratulations! |
| Michael Ward, MD, PhD, MBA, is MPI on a $3 million implementation science R18 grant recently awarded by AHRQ. CCQIR co-investigators include Adam Wright, PhD, and Asli Weitkamp, PhD. The project is titled: Development of smart on FHIR interoperable clinical decision support for emergency department patients with pneumonia and pilot deployment into novel Epic electronic health record environments. Congratulations! |
June 2023
| Michael Ward, MD, PhD, MBA, was the guest editor of the Special Issue on Veteran Emergency Care in Academic Emergency Medicine, featuring contributions from several VUMC researchers. This special issue is an outcome of the state-of-the-art (SOTA) conference on VA Emergency Medicine in 2022, which focused primarily on emergency care of older veterans, veterans with mental health needs in the emergency setting, and emergency care in non-VA community settings. Congratulations! |
May 2023
 | Bill Heerman, MD, MPH has been named chief of the Division of General Pediatrics. Dr. Heerman's research focuses on improving maternal-child health outcomes related to obesity in communities through development and implementation of behavioral interventions to support healthy childhood growth. His work relies heavily on the theories of health behavior change and the theories of implementation science to guide a pragmatic approach to community-based intervention development. Congratulations! |
January 2023
| Lyndsay Nelson, PhD, was recently named Assistant Director of the CCQIR. As part of the leadership team, she directs the Center's seminar series, journal clubs and social media communications. Dr. Nelson has received extensive training and implementation science through the Vanderbilt Scholars in T4 Translational Research (V-STTaR) K12 program and the Training Institute for Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health (TIDIRH). Her research focuses on designing digital tools that engage and empower patients to improve their health and implementing these tools in routine clinical care. Congratulations! |
| Ruth Kleinpell, PhD, RN, will lead a $250,000 funding award through the Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Awards Program. The project, Addressing Barriers to Engaging Patient and Caregivers Experiencing Critical Illness to Build Capacity for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research, will use group concept mapping to gather input from patients, family members, health care clinicians, researchers and others to identify ways to overcome barriers to patient-oriented clinical research. Congratulations! |
December 2022
 | Aima Ahonkhai, MD, MPH, is one of three winners of the final phase of the US Department of Health and Human Services' HIV challenge. The HIV challenge is divided into three phases, beginning with proposals for community engagement strategies to reduce HIV related stigma, and closing with phase-2 winners conducting small-scale testing on the dissemination and uptake of their approaches. Final winners receive a prize of $60,000 each to present their project findings and participate in post-award activities. Dr. Ahonkhai's project focuses on developing a framework for a multifaceted HIV stigma reduction intervention that integrates HIV-focused education for black barbers serving minority communities. Congratulations! |
November 2022
| Laurie Novak, PhD, MHSA, FAMIA, is a co-recipient of the prestigious Diana Forsythe award granted by the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA). The award honors an author of a peer-reviewed paper within journals publishing medical informatics-related content that best exemplifies the spirit and scholarship of Diana Forsythe's work at the intersection of informatics and social sciences. Novak was recognized for her publication, Disappearing expertise in clinical automation: Barcode medication administration and nurse autonomy. Congratulations! |
 | Chris Lindsell, PhD, has been named Director of the Data Science and Biostatistics team at the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) and will also serve as a member of the Senior Management Team. Dr. Lindsell previously served as Associate Director of the CCQIR and was instrumental in guiding the Center's strategic plan to grow implementation science awareness and expertise at VUMC and develop the Center's national presence. We are grateful to Dr. Lindsell for his contributions to CCQIR and wish him all the best in his new role. |