: The health system of the 21st Century is being challenged to identify systems solutions that enhance the quality of care for patients in family medicine and primary care. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of qualified clinical and health services researchers in family medicine to meet this challenge. This K08 Award seeks to accelerate the development of a family physician faculty member into a generalist, practice-based researcher with a specific focus on enhancing the organizational capacity of community practices to provide safe, evidence-based care to their patients. A focused educational and research agenda aimed at stretching existing understandings of system change will be used as the context for evolving the candidate's capacity as a principal investigator. The project will: 1) advance the candidate's understanding of organizational/management science and its measurement; 2) translate that understanding through implementation of a specific research project; and 3) apply these results to an R01 submission of a systems directed intervention that seeks to improve patient safety and decrease medical errors. This 4-year project provides salary support to the candidate in order to supply 75% protected research time that supports a variety of educational strategies designed to make the candidate an expert in practice relevant organizational performance measurement and to enhance his skills in survey and multi-method research approaches. The project allows the candidate to mature through mentored relationships on a specific research project, taking advantage of an existing $2.4 million NHLBI-funded clinical trial of the candidate's primary mentor. The candidate's success in becoming an independent investigator is also leveraged by the resources of a maturing research division, its regional and national network of collaborators, and a local developing practice-based research network. The practice-based research and organizational assessment products developed in this project will produce information that: 1) is relevant and useful to health care policy makers, payers, providers, and consumers; 2) can be applied in other health care organizational settings; and 3) will help address AHRQ's response to challenges of organizational research. Furthermore, this plan would act as a leveraged investment since the candidate will become a resource as an independent investigator and credible mentor for future health services researchers within an academic and practice-based network environment.
| Orzano, A John; Ohman-Strickland, Pamela A; Patel, Meghal (2008) What can family medicine practices do to facilitate knowledge management? Health Care Manage Rev 33:216-24 |
| Orzano, A John; Strickland, Pamela Ohman; Tallia, Alfred F et al. (2007) Improving outcomes for high-risk diabetics using information systems. J Am Board Fam Med 20:245-51 |
| Orzano, A John; Scott, John; Hudson, Shawna V et al. (2007) Strategies for conducting complex clinical trials in diverse community practices. Med Care 45:1221-6 |
| Orzano, A John; Tallia, Alfred F; Nutting, Paul A et al. (2006) Are attributes of organizational performance in large health care organizations relevant in primary care practices? Health Care Manage Rev 31:2-10 |
