# Damush HSR&D Research Career Scientist Award Application

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

## Abstract

Background: New policies and healthcare processes are constantly rolling out to the front lines of clinical staff
and providers across clinical conditions and multiple settings within VHA. Less is known about the investment
needed into evidence based implementation strategies by VHA healthcare organizations to achieve systematic
implementation. Moreover, implementation science has only recently begun to identify a set of implementation
strategies. Research is needed to elucidate upon the appropriate dose of the intervention strategy tailored to
the local context to modify provider behaviors' and patients' behaviors and systems of care with sustainable
implementation. Through the Precision Monitoring (PRIS-M QUERI Center) to Transform Care program we are
conducting the following implementation evaluations: 1) Conduct scalable clinical quality improvement projects
that link electronic data to provider actions and reporting; 2) Investigate the effects of providing actionable data
on care team behaviors and processes and Veteran behaviors and satisfaction; 3) Identify the implementation
strategies including the investment needed in and contextual factors that activate VHA providers, leaders, and
Veterans to use data to transform and improve care and patient outcomes; and 4) activate Veteran patients to
engage in the healthcare system to manage their health. Methods: With the ongoing input of our core VHA
Operational partners, we are accomplishing these aims via core research and quality improvement projects
that cover multiple conditions and care settings. Our projects focus on: 1) national implementation of
TeleStroke in rural VHA, 2) testing telehealth modules and electronic quality measures for improving rapid
transient ischemic attack (TIA) care, 3) decision support to deimplement inappropriate carotid ultrasound
image ordering, and 4) regional implementation of TeleRobotics in rural VHA. These projects are supported by
an Implementation and Data Core that I lead which works across all projects to facilitate efficient use of data;
usability testing of new tools; and standardized use of implementation measures, methods, and analytic
approaches. Our overarching implementation strategy focuses on activating individuals and groups to use data
to transform care, and we use the CFIR framework to plan data collection and analyses across projects to
identify core implementation strategies and contextual factors that impact how people use data to transform
care. Key partners include the Office of Specialty Care, the Office of Rural Health, the Office of Telehealth, the
Roudebush VAMC, and the VA Center for Applied Systems Engineering. We have developed a professional
video modeling a multidisciplinary VA healthcare team which uses data to activate provider changes across
services in a data driven way to improve the quality of care, and provider/patient satisfaction. Using Planning,
Goal Setting, and Reflection and Evaluation, we are promoting provider beh...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10290891
- **Project number:** 5IK6HX002715-03
- **Recipient organization:** RLR VA MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** TERESA M. DAMUSH
- **Activity code:** IK6 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-04-01 → 2024-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10290891

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10290891, Damush HSR&D Research Career Scientist Award Application (5IK6HX002715-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10290891. Licensed CC0.

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