Brown University, Providence RI
Institutional Training Programs
Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research
Contact
Vincent Mor, Ph.D., Program Director
Joan Teno, M.D., M.S., Professor, Health Services Policy and Practice
Amal Trivedi, M.D., Associate Professor, Health Services Policy and Practice
Tom Trikalinos, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor, Health Services Policy and Practice
Postdoctoral Training Program
Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research
Brown University
Box G – 121-6
Providence, RI 02912
Phone: (401) 863-3211
Web site: http://brown.edu/research/projects/gerontology-healthcare-research/
Content Areas
- Management of Chronic Disease.
- Long-term Care Quality.
- Organizational Factors Affecting Quality of Care.
- Prevention Services.
- Priority Populations (older adults, chronically ill).
- Disparities in Health Care Services.
- Evidence Based Medicine.
- Comparative Effectiveness Research.
- Pharmaco-Epidemiology.
Program Description
Since its inception, Brown University has operated a highly productive AHRQ training site for over 50 interdisciplinary post-doctoral health services researchers focusing on chronic disease management and aging. Of the 45 post-doctoral fellows who've completed their training, 68% have received external funding for a research grant they've initiated and this climbs to 79% if we only consider fellows who've finished the fellowship program over 2 years ago. Of the 45 who've finished, 27 have academic appointments and another 7 are working in Government, University or private sector research groups. There are 18 former fellows who are in the senior faculty ranks at their respective Universities. The pre-doctoral training program in Health Services Research offers tracks in health economics, organizational delivery systems and pharmaco-epidemiology and graduates are already serving as Assistant Professors at research intensive Universities.
The Brown Health Services Research portfolio spans multiple settings (VA, hospitals, nursing homes and other post-acute settings) and topics which we've grouped under the headings of:
- Improving long term care in America.
- Improving patient safety and quality particularly via pharmaco-epidemiology.
- Examining restructuring of Medicaid via Managed Care for the dually eligible population.
- Examining quality variation in Medicare Managed Care.
- Quality improvement programs in Integrated Delivery Systems.
- An evidence-based medicine track available to post-doctoral trainees who are incorporated into Brown's AHRQ funded Evidence Based Practice Center.
The Center's AHRQ-funded training program educates both physician and non-physician researchers, emphasizing research skills necessary to address fundamental questions of health care delivery and population health. Didactic training linked with hands-on supervised experience in health services research is provided. Fellows and graduate students are assigned a faculty mentor whose research is congruent with their interests. Under the guidance of their mentors, trainees identify a specific sub-project that they design, implement, and analyze. In addition, fellows also complete at least one minor project based upon their own interests and prior work. Fellows' present findings at national meetings, publish manuscripts, and submit or participate in research proposal development. Didactic training opportunities are available from courses offered in the graduate programs in Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Health Services Research and physicians have the opportunity to obtain a Master of Science or MPH degree. All fellows participate in weekly seminars covering issues ranging from policy analysis to the ethical conduct of research, and participate in weekly research seminars in epidemiology and health services research methods.