: This proposal is submitted in response to a Program Announcement of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) numbered #PAR-04-016 and entitled """"""""AHRQ Minority Research Infrastructure Support Program."""""""" The broad objective of this application is the development of the Drew Health Services Research Center, a productive and sustainable health services research (HSR) program that will contribute to the elimination of health disparities in vulnerable communities. The specific objectives of the proposed three-year activity are the building of a team of investigators at Drew who are capable of conducting methodologically-rigorous HSR, who are sufficiently skilled to submit competitive grant applications to AHRQ and other funding sources, and who contribute substantively to the literature on the health and well-being of vulnerable populations. These objectives will be achieved through the achievement of the following specific aims: ? 1) To strengthen Drew's institutional HSR infrastructure by providing a centralized health services research Administrative Unit dedicated to providing and coordinating relevant administrative resources, faculty development opportunities, and methodological assistance in support of enhancing the capability of individual faculty to undertake health services research; ? 2) To establish a critical mass of HSR investigators at Drew who will benefit from a structured interdisciplinary training experience that: a) guides development of research skills; b) provides researchers with exposure to senior faculty across a broad range of disciplines; and c) facilitates mentored interactions; ? 3) enhances HSR by creating a methods unit to provide technical resources for quantitative and qualitative methodologies, data management, secondary database analysis, and biostatistical analysis support; and ? 4) To support individual investigator projects that both lead to funding under regular HSR grant mechanisms and contribute to the institutional HSR infrastructure development. ? Through the Drew HSR M-RISP, the capability of Drew investigators will become more qualified to engage in methodologically rigorous health services research, to facilitate manuscript submission to HSR journals, to develop competitive HSR applications for submission to AHRQ, and to establish a nationally-recognized HSR center. The overarching theme for research performed under the auspices of this program is the elimination of health disparities in minority, socioeconomically disadvantaged, and other vulnerable populations identified by AHRQ as """"""""priority populations."""""""" Drew's efforts will emphasize research in inner city settings that are particularly relevant to delivery of care and research into health-related outcomes of care in vulnerable populations, including inner city communities, low income groups, minority groups, the elderly, and individuals with special healthcare needs. Delivery systems of special importance include safety net environments such as public hospitals and community health centers. ? ? ? ?
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