# HSR&D Merit Review Research Career Scientist Award

> **NIH VA IK6** · DURHAM VA MEDICAL CENTER · 2021 · —

## Abstract

This proposed Research Career Scientist award is to support the activities of Dr. Courtney Van Houtven,
who is an experienced Department of Veterans Affairs investigator, allowing her to expand her scientific, men-
toring, and service contributions. Dr. Van Houtven leads research studies that test care models to improve the
function and independence of older adults with functional limitations and the function of their informal caregivers.
The overarching goal of her research agenda is to enable at-risk Veterans to remain at home as safely as pos-
sible and for as long as possible. This research is important because there are 9.8 million Veterans over age 65
and 5.5 million Veterans receive informal care in order to remain at home. The majority of Dr. Van Houtven’s
research has been conducted in the VA healthcare system. Dr. Van Houtven used a VA HSR&D funded Career
Development Award to gain mentorship and training to design and test interventions.
 Her 116 published articles are in top-tier health economics, health services research, and geriatrics journals.
A Google Scholar query shows that her work has earned 4,011 citations with an h-index of 28 (8/2020). Dr. Van
Houtven has led or co-led five VA studies, representing over $13 million in VA grant funding, and been co-I
on 13 VA studies. Her research contributions include testing the effectiveness of a skills training program for
caregivers of Veteran patients with functional impairment in an RCT, called HI-FIVES (JGIM 2019). An adapted
version of HI-FIVES called iHI-FIVES has been implemented at 8 VA sites using a stepped wedge cluster ran-
domized RCT as a part of the Optimizing Function and Independence QUERI. The Program Office has requested
that iHI-FIVES be a part of its performance standards to expand services to caregivers. Additionally, Dr. Van
Houtven directs the partnered evaluation of the VA Caregiver Support Program with a team from Durham ADAPT
and the VA National Caregiver Support Program. Over the past six years, she has measured program impacts
and provided feedback to the program office detailing how the program is improving the lives of caregivers and
Veterans and where the program can improve. Besides publishing 10 articles for the evaluation program, she
supported congressional testimony of the SecVA (2017) and filled rapid requests from Program Office leaders.
 In addition to Dr. Van Houtven’s research activities, she is helping build the next generation of VA researchers
through mentoring. Today she mentors 4 VA CDAs (2 as primary, 2 as co-mentor), 1 K-awardee, and has
served on 10 dissertation committees. Her VA service engagement includes contributions to VA Caregiver Sup-
port Program strategic planning, chairing the metrics committee of the Choose Home Initiative, performing grant
reviews for HSR&D/QUERI, and participating in SOTAs and special VA initiatives. Her professional stature can
be assessed by national and international invited talks, such as from the Nationa...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10250600
- **Project number:** 1IK6HX003396-01
- **Recipient organization:** DURHAM VA MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Courtney Harold Van Houtven
- **Activity code:** IK6 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-10-01 → 2026-09-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10250600

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10250600, HSR&D Merit Review Research Career Scientist Award (1IK6HX003396-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10250600. Licensed CC0.

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