In Phase II operation, the I/UCRC for Health Organization Transformation (CHOT)intends to approach the multifaceted problems of health organizations with prospective, multi-disciplinary, and multi-level research strategies that take advantage of quasi-experimental designs and natural experiments, where feasible. In its five years of Phase I, CHOT has quickly removed research silos by pairing multi-disciplinary research teams of engineers, strategic management experts, management scientists, and health services researchers with high-impact problems that top-tier health systems struggle to address. Specifically, CHOT has produced research that enables health systems to better identify, apply, optimize, and assess the impact of innovations on access, quality, and efficiency of healthcare services. The organizational transformations identified through these collaborative efforts will continue to be disseminated as best practices where innovations indicate a need for sustained changes.
U.S. healthcare expenditures, at 17.9 percent of GDP, account for over twice the healthcare spending per capita of the average of the 34 developed nations of the OECD. Nonetheless, U.S. falls below the OECD averages on many population health conditions. Current and planned CHOT research projects coincide with the most expansive change in healthcare policy in the U.S. CHOT members benefit by obtaining early validation of the direct impact of the innovations in their own organizations. Center researchers and students work closely with health managers, engineers, and other front-line professionals in health systems being studied. This kind of training, especially for doctoral students, supports the ability of future researchers and teachers to address industry issues from a position of real-world experience. It also engages participating industry professionals in identifying significant problems and understanding existing knowledge bases related to these problems so that they can more effectively implement any needed changes. Aggressive recruiting for graduate students among under-represented groups will continue, increasing the diversity of the workforce for both academia and industry. Exciting new opportunities will continue for undergraduate students in Center research activities, exposing them to health services research and encouraging them to pursue graduate education.
