Researchers

The Sheps Center is a collaborative environment with researchers from a wide variety of educational affiliations including:

• UNC School of Medicine
• Gillings Global School of Public Health
• UNC School of Social Work
• UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy
• UNC School of Nursing.

Highlighted Research Themes

Patient Centered Outcome Research

The Sheps Center has engaged in projects to identify priorities for patient centered outcome research for serious mental illness, to increase validity of comparative effectiveness research in the elderly, and to define approaches for capturing divergent stakeholder views on research needs.

Evidence-Based Practice

Some recent systematic review topics at the Sheps Center included screening and behavioral counseling interventions for alcohol misuse, psychological and pharmacological treatments for adults with PTSD, interventions to improve adherence to self-administered medications, comparative effectiveness of medications for rheumatoid arthritis, and effective characteristics of nursing homes and other residential long-term care settings for people with dementia.

Practice Based Research Networks

Researchers at the Sheps Center are developing information about how to implement and sustain provider based research networks and what can be expected of this model for disseminating and implementing evidence based clinical services in community settings.

Decision Support

Sheps Center researchers are currently doing decision support work on an educational video to improve nursing home care in end stage dementia, and also doing work related to breast cancer reconstruction decision making.

Community Based Participatory Research

At the Sheps Center researchers have used this method to work with communities to conduct research on how to reduce HIV and sexually transmitted infections in African American Rural Youth, conduct research in assisted living facilities, mitigate disparities in breast and lung cancer care, and work on CBPR derived health equity training for cancer care providers and staff.

Expanded Use of Health Care Administrative Data

The Sheps Center’s portfolio of work on rural health focuses on Federal insurance programs (Medicare and Medicaid) to examine their effect on rural populations and providers. Recent projects used data from these program to examine utilization of Medicare’s Rural Health Clinic reimbursement program, rural hospitals’ experience with swing beds, and an analysis of patterns of care-seeking behavior in rural communities.