Press Releases: Colorado
September 17, 2007
First-of-its-kind research center comes to Colorado
Kaiser Permanente Colorado opens Center for Health Dissemination and Implementation Research
DENVER, CO— The future of health care in this country depends on quality research being integrated into practice and health policy. But putting research into practice often doesn't always happen and can sometimes slow the pace of cutting-edge care. Kaiser Permanente Colorado is proud to announce the first-of-its-kind broad-based research center aimed at getting research into practice and policy more quickly by helping researchers, clinicians and health care leaders gain a better understanding of the best methods of dissemination and of the key steps in integrating research-based programs into real-world health care.
James W. Dearing, Ph.D. and Russell E. Glasgow, Ph.D., two well-known and highly respected researchers, are co-directors of the new research center. It will serve as a collaborative learning laboratory and a resource to stimulate, support and evaluate translational research. Assistance will be provided to Kaiser Permanente Colorado, Kaiser Permanente units outside of Colorado, and other national collaborators in the areas of planning and design, literature review and translation references, research and clinical tool validation, consultation/technical assistance, and practical evaluation of dissemination and implementation efforts.
"Opening the Center for Health Dissemination and Implementation Research positions Kaiser Permanente Colorado as a national leader in the scientific study and research-based application about dissemination and implementation," said Dearing.
"The Center paves the way for better coordination of the many diverse dissemination research efforts taking place in this area of study," said Glasgow.
As leading health organizations in this country demand increased knowledge application and accountability, the center's role will be to contribute prominently in setting the national agenda for helping to define and advance the fields of:
- The applied science of implementation and dissemination research.
- Identification and use of best processes for implementing evidence-based practices
- Creation of tools for the integration of health care research into practice and policy.
"The ultimate measure of research lies in its impact, said C. Tracy Orleans, Ph.D., distinguished fellow and senior scientist, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "Under the leadership of Drs. Dearing and Glasgow, pioneers in translating research into policy and practice, Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Dissemination and Implementation Research is certain to continue to transform the ways in which we think about, design, fund, disseminate and implement health research that makes a difference."
The Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Dissemination and Implementation Research has initial project grants from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. Further details can be found at www.research-practice.org.
The Center for Health Dissemination and Implementation Research is part of Kaiser Permanente Colorado's Institute for Health Research (IHR). The IHR mission is to develop, conduct and translate high quality research into practice and to promote evidence-based practices and service-oriented, cost-effective medical care and health promotion. Find it online at http://kpco-ihr.org/.
Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, together with the Colorado Permanente Medical Group, forms Kaiser Permanente, the largest private health care provider in Colorado. More than 482,000 members in the Denver/Boulder and Colorado Springs areas have access to Kaiser Permanente care through an expanded suite of health care products. Kaiser Permanente physicians and care teams focus on prevention as well as managing disease, all in an effort to help patients live well and thrive. Visit us online at kp.org or get the latest in health news at our News Center.
About the scientists:
James W. Dearing (Ph.D., University of Southern California) is Senior Scientist in the Institute for Health Research, Kaiser Permanente Colorado, and Co-Director (with Russell Glasgow) of the IHR Center for Health Dissemination and Implementation Research. He was Professor of Communication and Director of Graduate Studies in the School of Communication Studies at Ohio University, on the faculty of Michigan State University, and a visiting faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley, and at the University of Michigan. He studies the strategic use of diffusion of innovation concepts to accelerate the spread of evidence-based practices, programs, and policies. He studied under and worked closely with Everett M. Rogers for 20 years. Dearing has been principal investigator for research sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Agency for Health Care Policy & Research, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and other organizations. His most recent book is Communication of Innovations (2006, co-edited with Arvind Singhal). Dearing is a member of the National Academy of Science/ Institute of Medicine framework committee for a five-year programmatic review of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Russell E. Glasgow (PhD, clinical psychology, Univ. of Oregon) has conducted research on patient-centered health behavior change and self-management for the past 20 years. While at the Oregon Research Institute, he and colleagues developed and validated a number of behavioral assessment and intervention procedures for diabetes self-management, and psychosocial and social environmental factors that influence self-management. More recently, he and colleagues at the Kaiser Permanente Colorado have developed and validated instruments that assess multi-level support and resources to facilitate self-management, and that assess the extent to which patients have received care congruent with the Chronic Care Model. Dr. Glasgow has also contributed conceptual articles, empirical reviews of the literature, outcome studies, and methodological papers on assessment, evaluation, and translation of research into practice issues, many of which use the RE-AIM model. He has published more than 300 scientific articles and received national research contribution awards from the Society of Behavioral Medicine and the American Diabetes Association. His recent work has focused on health technology aided interventions that work in concert with primary care settings, and offer potential for wide-scale dissemination. Throughout these writings, he has emphasized the importance of taking a comprehensive, yet practical, integrated systems approach to understanding, assessing and intervening to enhance consistent delivery of evidence-based, patient-centered care.
About Kaiser Permanente Colorado
The Colorado Permanente Medical Group has an exclusive contract with Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Colorado to form Kaiser Permanente Colorado, the state's largest private, non-profit health care provider in the state. CPMG is Colorado's largest medical group practice within a health care organization, and employs 800 regular status physicians representing all medical specialties and major sub-specialties. More than 483,000 members in the Denver/Boulder and Colorado Springs areas have access to Kaiser Permanente care through an expanded suite of health care products. Kaiser Permanente physicians and care teams focus on prevention as well as managing disease, all in an effort to help patients live well and thrive. Visit us online at kp.org or get the latest in health news at our News Center.