# Center for Health Information and Communication

> **NIH VA I50** · RLR VA MEDICAL CENTER · 2024 · —

## Abstract

Given Veterans' increasing choices about where and how they receive care, successful coordination of care
will require improving effective communication among a variety of individuals and entities, as well as improved
management and use of health information. Health information and health communication go hand in hand.
The VA Health Services Research and Development (HSR&D) Center for Health Information and
Communication (CHIC) is an HSR&D Center of Innovation (COIN) that is uniquely positioned to continue to
address this need for VA and Veterans. The CHIC's mission is to improve Veterans' health care through
innovative research on health information, technology, and communication. The CHIC's vision is to improve
Veterans' health through innovative applications of health information and health information systems that
serve the population-based and interpersonal needs of patients and health professionals. Summarized below
are the CHIC's three primary goals and two focused areas of research for the next five years.
• Goal A. Advance the science of health information and communication, to improve the coordination,
quality, safety, and value of health care for Veterans. This goal has the following two focus areas.
 Focus Area 1. Advance technologies that promote improved information management, and engage and
connect Veterans, clinicians, and VA operations partners, to improve healthcare decision-making, policy,
and outcomes.
 Focus Area 2. Optimize interpersonal communication among Veterans, clinicians, and other caregivers,
to promote Veteran-centered care.
• Goal B. Bring about improvements in clinical practice through the translation and implementation of health
services research (see Section C3, Implementation and Dissemination).
• Goal C. Cultivate a vibrant community of scientists in health services research and development, with the
skills and passion to improve VA healthcare through a focus on health information, communication, and
implementation (see Section C4, Mentoring and Career Development).
Our areas of expertise include health information exchange, interpersonal communication, clinical decision
support, human-computer interactions, transfers of responsibility in care, cancer care, care for Veterans with
chronic pain, improving care for stroke, and improving care for mental illness. Our work over the next five years
will span a wide range of science, with the potential to transform aspects of VA healthcare for the better. One
project will improve health information tools to ease the burden of medication reconciliation. Another, bridging
our two focus areas of health technology and communication, will support providers in negotiating
documentation in an electronic health record while maintaining person-centered communication with the
patient. Another study beginning this year will coach providers and patients on how to share decisions about
the use of opioids and alternative treatments to manage chronic pain. Every project is driven...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9664729
- **Project number:** 1I50HX002720-01
- **Recipient organization:** RLR VA MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** MICHAEL WEINER
- **Activity code:** I50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2018-10-01 → 2023-09-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9664729

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9664729, Center for Health Information and Communication (1I50HX002720-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9664729. Licensed CC0.

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