Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion
Health Equity Capacity Building
Primary Care Equity Dashboard (PCED)
Impact of CHERP's Equity and Quality Aligned (EQuAl) Research to Impact for Veterans (RIVR)
- The Primary Care Equity Dashboard (PCED) was officially released to the field in February of 2021 and has since gained over 400 end-users distributed across all VISNs and VA Central Office.
- The tool is a core component of the VHA Office of Health Equity's national strategy for promoting health equity among Veterans.
- An interactive "Equity QI" case study developed by the PCED team is being disseminated as part of the VHA's Whole Health for All: Social and Structural Determinants of Health Virtual Course. The course is offered to roughly 50 participants each month. The case study illustrates how to use the PCED to identify local disparities and design equity-focused quality improvement initiatives.
- Results of the first demonstration project using the tool were presented on an OHE CyberSeminar in September of 2021. The project's focus on a pharmacist-led intervention to reduce racial disparities in statin adherence prompted the PCED to be considered for further dissemination through the PACT Pharmacy Subject Matter Expert Team.
- Dr. Hausmann's close partnership with OHE through the RIVR resulted in a commentary published on incorporating equity into the concept of a High Reliability Organization: Moy E, Hausmann LRM, Clancy CM. From HRO to HERO: making health equity a core system capability. Am J Med Qual. Epub 2021 Sep 11.
Impact of CHERP Health Equity projects
The "Birth Control on Demand" demonstration project led by Drs. Quinn and Borrero enables women Veterans at two VAMCs to access contraceptive counseling from a clinical pharmacist and to receive a 12-month supply of birth control. This initiative supported by CHERP and SWIFT funds received the Health System Impact award at the 2021 VAPHS Best Practice Conference.
Dr. Quinn presented her research on the prevalence of racial and ethnic differences in severe maternal morbidity and mortality among women Veterans to leaders in Women's Health Services (WHS). WHS now plans to standardize VA's measurement of adverse maternal outcomes. Dr. Quinn's findings were also cited in testimony for the Protecting Moms Who Served Act.
Dr. Blosnich highlighted his VA research findings on transgender Veteran health and health care in a national training session for Veterans Crisis Line staff hosted by the Veterans and Military Crisis Line in the VA LGBT Special Emphasis Program. He also presented on "Suicide Prevention Among LGTBQ+ Veterans" in a MyVA Access Mental Health Call attended by ~300 VA staff. He presented on "Suicide Risk and Prevention for Sexual and Gender Minority Populations" for the Suicide Risk Management Lecture Series co-sponsored by OMHSP and EES.
Drs. Dichter, Essien, and Hausmann contributed to A Clinical Resource Guide for Community Care Centers during the COVID-19 Pandemic created by the VA's National Center on Homelessness among Veterans and the National Health Care for the Homeless Council to raise a holistic awareness of the various complex needs of people experiencing homelessness.
- Drs. Essien and Long contributed to the 2021 National Veteran Health Equity Report. They wrote the chapter on Socio-economic Status (in press).
Partnered Operational Projects in Health Equity
VHA Equity Explorer: Building an Interactive Equity Dashboard plus multiple partnered demonstration projects using the dashboard (Hausmann, OHE)
Expanding Whole Health Program to Address Disparities and Social Determinants through Community Engagement and Community Health Workers Program (Long, Brown, CMCVAMC)
Disseminating Best Practices for Quality and Equity in End-of-life Care (Ersek, Kutney-Lee, and Thorpe, Hospice and Palliative Care Program Veterans Experience Center)
Appropriate Gonorrhea and Chlamydia Screening in Women Veterans (Keddem, HIV, Hepatitis, and Related Conditions Program)
National Leadership in Health Equity
Dr. Blosnich provided subject matter expertise and recommendations for Best Practices for Diversity, Inclusion, and Health Equity for the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act's Annual Evaluation Initiative.
Dr. Essien received the Herbert W. Nickens Faculty Fellowship Award for his demonstrated leadership in addressing inequities in medical education and health care.
Dr. Essien was a featured speaker in a series of podcasts on anti-racism in medicine released by The Clinical Problem Solvers, an Internal Medicine Podcast. He was also recognized by Medscape as one of 20 top Black physician social media influencers for his tweets highlighting racial disparities in COVID testing, treatment, and outcomes and by Business Insider as one of 30 leaders under 40 working to transform US healthcare in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic for his efforts to address disparities and end racism in medicine.
Dr. Fine is a member of the HSR&D Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Workgroup.
Drs. Fine and Hausmann serve on the VA Office of Health Equity Coalition.
Dr. Hausmann is the VHA representative to the National Quality Forum's 2021-2022 Measure Applications Partnership Health Equity Advisory Group. Dr. Hausmann also partnered with the Deputy Under Secretary for Health for the Office of Discovery, Education, and Affiliate Networks and the Director of the Office of Health Equity to publish an editorial that proposed adding Equity to HROs in the most literal sense by designating it as a core component and achieving High Equity Reliability Organizations (HEROs). From HRO to HERO: Making Health Equity . . .
Dr. Long is the VA representative on the NIMHD National Advisory Council.
Dr. Keddem is a member of the VHA Sexually Transmitted Infection Working Group.
Dr. Parikh received the 2020 Prostate Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award for his work on racial disparities in prostate cancer care.
CHERP investigators published 159 peer-review publications focused on health equity and/or vulnerable populations and disseminated their research in the scientific literature, and in social media, podcasts, newspaper, television and radio feature stories (details to follow in March 2022 Dissemination report).
