Projects
UNC-CH Training Program in Health Services Research
Training program to provide academic training and direct experience in the application of the research skills from a number of disciplines to the study of the organization, financing, utilization, and delivery of personal health care services.
Program Director: Timothy S. Carey, M.D., M.P.H.
Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Total Project Period: 09/89 - 06/13
Institutional National Research Service Award
Continuation of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's National Research Service Award Primary Care Research Fellowship to prepare physicians who are committed to careers as academic primary care researchers to confidently and expertly conceive, conduct, and disseminate research in the field of primary medical care.
Principal Investigator: Donald E. Pathman, M.D
Source: Bureau of Health Professions, HRSA
Total Project Period: 7/98 – 6/10
An Observational Descriptive Study of Institutional Review Board (IRB) Practices – Given the widespread reliance on IRBs as oversight bodies for assuring ethical conduct of research, it is surprising that there has been little if any investigation of their decision-making process. This project will focus exclusively on decision making about new protocols that are presented to IRBs. By applying both quantitative and qualitative research techniques to tape-recorded IRB deliberations, and to semi-structured interviews with IRB reviewers, the process of decision making will be described and what types of projects are likely to get the most thorough reviews will be determined. The project aims are to: 1) describe the content of IRB decisions about individual research protocols; 2) characterize the interaction processes by which IRBs make decisions; and 3) describe the IRB decision-making processes in terms or organizational design making theory. What domains of decision making, as described by organizational decision making theory, receive the most attention in IRB processes will be determined, as well as determining what variables and protocol variables predict the domains that receive the most attention.
Principal Investigator: Laura C. Hanson, M.D., M.P.H.
Funding Source: National Institutes of Health (via University of Massachusetts)
Total Project Period: 09/06 – 04/11
America ’s Health Rankings – This project supports the continuing work of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the America’s Health Rankings®, an assessment of the relative health of the 50 states in the U.S. The United Health Foundation publishes these rankings annually. The funds support the review of issues and trends by the Committee, the analysis of options in calculating the rankings, and the implementation of improvements to the rankings methodology.
Principal Investigator: Thomas C. Ricketts, III, M.P.H., Ph.D.
Funding Source: United Health Foundation
Project Period: 05/07 – 6/10
UNC Tracs Feasibility Study for Web-Assisted Evaluation of Evidence Based Practice Implementation - The focus of this study is (1) to test the utility and fit for North Carolina substance abuse treatment providers of reliable and valid measures for (a) provider readiness-to-change, (b) knowledge acquisition regarding evidence-based practice, (c) change in symptom severity for consumer participants enrolled in evidence-based practice treatment groups, and (d) provider adherence or fidelity to an evidence based model for integrated treatment of substance abuse and trauma associated disorders, and (2) to evaluate the feasibility of a web-interface tool for data collection associated with translation research in public substance abuse treatment settings. Through a collaborative approach, providers and consumers who have recently adopted Dr. Lisa Najavits’s evidence-based practice model for present-focused integrated treatment of substance abuse and trauma-related disorders titled Seeking Safety will be invited to have direct input regarding the utility of instruments chosen and on the potential for a web-interface data collection system to be beneficial for larger translation research studies in North Carolina. A research collaborative made up of experts from continuing education, research-to-practice knowledge dissemination, women’s substance abuse and trauma treatment, public health policy, and health systems technology will guide and inform this study. Findings will be communicated to the North Carolina Practice Improvement Collaborative and to research and policy staff integral to mental health, developmental disabilities, and substance abuse research-to-practice translation efforts in North Carolina. This pilot study will inform a future translation research agenda in women’s evidence-based substance abuse treatment services for the principal investigator.
Principal Investigator: Sherri L. Green, Ph.D., LCSW
Funding Source: North Carolina TraCS Institute
Total Project Period: 5/1/09-2/28/10
Recent Completed Projects
Robeson County Bridges for Families - Dr. Green will have the responsibility of collecting and interpreting data as the evaluator of the perinatal programs and other evidence based programs that have been approved by the NCPIC for statewide rollout, as well as prepare collaborative grant applications with the approval of the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services. In addition, she will serve as the Principle Investigator of the Robeson County Bridges for Families which is funded by a contract between the Institute and the North Carolina Division of Social Services.
Principal Investigator: Sherri Green
Funding Source: Governor's Institute on Alcohol and Substance Abuse Inc.
Total Project Period: 08/01/08 - 06/30/09
Adult Drug Treatment Court Evaluation – Catawba County - In so far as the North Carolina administrative office of the courts (AOC) is charged by the North Carolina general assembly under the North Carolina drug treatment court (DTC) act (N.C.G.S. §7a- 790, et seq.) To establish and monitor drug treatment courts in North Carolina, this proposal outlines the required and agreed upon approach to an adult drug court process evaluation that will be adhered to by an evaluation team out of the Cecil G. Sheps Center For Health Services Research (Sheps Center), at UNC at Chapel Hill (UNC), and lead by Dr. Sherri green. Specifically, legislation specifies that the goals of the DTCs are: (1) to reduce alcoholism and other drug dependencies among offenders; (2) to reduce recidivism; (3) to reduce the drug-related court workload; (4) to increase the personal, familial, and societal accountability of offenders; and (5) to promote effective interaction and use of resources among criminal justice personnel. The Sheps Center research team will endeavor to evaluate progress of the Catawba adult drug court team toward these goals through standard methods outlined by the NC AOC .
Principal Investigator: Sherri L. Green, Ph.D., LCSW
Funding Source: North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts
Total Project Period: 5/1/09-10/31/09
HSR Tools Evaluation/Recommendations
Project to provide recommendations on the design and content of HSR Tools, a new database of the National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology to include citations to datasets and instruments related to health services research.
Principal Investigator: B. Lynn Whitener, M.S.L.S., Dr.P.H.
Source: National Library of Medicine, NIH (through the Association for Health Services Research)
Total Project Period: 06/99 - 09/09
National Information System on Health Services Research
Project to maintain a health services research information system that collects available information on ongoing research projects funded by both public and private sector agencies for the National Library of Medicine.
Principal Investigator: B. Lynn Whitener, M.S.L.S., Dr.P.H.
Source: National Library of Medicine, NIH (through The Association for Health Services Research)
Total Project Period: 11/91 – 3/09
