Lisa Cannon-Albright, PhD
Division of Epidemiology

Department of Defense, Office of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP)

Prostate Cancer Research Program

8/1/2018 -7/31/2021

We have identified a set of Utah pedigrees that have an excess of men dying from their aggressive prostate cancer and we have DNA samples for hundreds of the cases in these pedigrees.

We will sequence related pairs of cases from 50 of these high-risk pedigrees to identify a set of candidate predisposition genes/variants.  These candidates will be assayed in other cases in the high-risk pedigrees, as well as in an independent set of cases and controls to identify the variants predisposing to lethal prostate cancer.  Craig Teerlink in my group is a co-investigator, Neeraj Agarwal, MD and Robert Stephenson, MD at HCI are collaborators, as is Chad Huff, PhD at MD Anderson.

Adam J. Gordon, MD
Division of Epidemiology

Department of Veterans Affairs
Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI)

Addiction Treatment in Primary Care Expansion (APEX) Project

Implementation and Evaluation of a Multifaceted Provider Support Initiative to Improve Access to Opioid Use Disorder Treatment in Primary Care Settings

May 1, 2018 – April 30, 2019

Among Veterans receiving healthcare from the Veterans Health Administration (VA), there has been sharp rise in the number of Veterans diagnosed with opioid use disorder (OUD). In 2013, 25,031 Veterans had OUD and in 2017, Veterans with OUD nearly tripled to 69,142. As the largest direct provider of addiction treatment nationally, VA has taken steps to increase access to medication treatment for OUD, which is recognized as an essential component of evidence-based care. The treatment of OUD involves several FDA-approved, VA formulary medications including naltrexone, methadone, and buprenorphine/naloxone. Strong evidence supports the treatment of OUD with medications, and they are the “gold standard” treatments for OUD. In partnership with regional VA leadership, this project will address the priority goal of improving access to medication-assisted therapy for OUD treatment. The objective of the VISN Partnered Implementation Initiative startup phase (PHASE 1) is to implement and evaluate the evidence-based, effective practice of medication treatment of opioid use disorder in primary care settings. A subsequent PHASE 2 will study the implementation of strategies from PHASE 1 across the entire VA Region. We propose two specific aims: Aim 1: Evaluate the implementation and impact of a multifaceted provider support initiative at two VA medical centers and four community-based clinics in the VA Region using the integrated-Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (i-PARIHS) implementation framework. The multifaceted initiative will leverage existing VA national and regional resources (including e-consults, tele mentoring and telehealth) to facilitate improved access to OUD treatment in primary care. Aim 2: Create an interactive implementation toolkit with guidance on facilitation and incentive strategies and resources for broader dissemination across the VA Region and nationally.