Department of Medicine

Health Services Research News

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April 2021

Laura Petersen, M.D., MPH, FACP,  professor and chief, Health Services Research, has been named a champion on BCM's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee.

Molly Horstman, M.D., assistant professor, Health Services Research, received the Norton Rose Fulbright Faculty Excellence Award in the category of Teaching and Evaluation.

Kyler Godwin, Ph.D., assistant professor, Health Services Research, received BCM's 2021 Women of Excellence award.

Barbara Trautner, M.D., Ph.D., professor, Health Services Research, received BCM's 2021 Women of Excellence award.

Barbara Trautner, M.D., Ph.D., professor, Health Services Research. Dr. Trautner, site investigator and her team at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center (MEDVAMC), are currently the fifth highest enrolling site in the world for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and National Institutes of Health funded Adaptive, Randomized, Blinded Controlled Trial of the Safety and Efficacy of Investigational Therapeutics for Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19 (ACTIV-3) trial.

February 2021

Hardeep Singh, M.D., MPH professor, Health Services Research, is chair of the PROVEN Hub Expert Stakeholder panel. The goal of the panel is to obtain expert input on three specific questions as the PROVEN hub seeks to facilitate EHR research in the VA.

December 2020

Molly Horstman, M.D., assistant professor, Health Services Research, was awarded a BCM Early Career Faculty Award in Patient Care.

November 2020

Vivian Ho, Ph.D., professor, Health Services Research, was elected to National Academy of Medicine in recognition of "her scholarly work in providing insights on how economic factors and government regulations interact to influence the cost and quality of health care," according to NAM's citation of her accomplishments." Her work has shaped policy on state Certificate of Need regulations, hospital antitrust and freestanding emergency departments." 

October 2020

The Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine's 13th Annual International Diagnostic Error in Medicine Conference (SIDM2020) took place virtually, Oct. 19-21, 2020. This year’s theme was Transforming Education and Practice to Improve Diagnosis and was Co-chaired by Ashley Meyer, Ph.D., assistant professor, Section of Health Services Research. Over 650 people from around the world participated. IQuESt members were collectively involved in presentation of two expert discussion groups, two workshops, four oral abstracts, and 10 posters (with two of these posters receiving awards for being judged as the best in their category).

Kyler Godwin, Ph.D., assistant professor, Health Services Research, has been awarded the Norton Rose Fulbright in the category of Educational Research.

Kyler Godwin, Ph.D., assistant professor, Health Services Research, has been awarded the Norton Rose Fulbright in the category of Educational Research

September 2020

Ashley Meyer, Ph.D., assistant professor, Health Services Research, was co-chair of the 2020 virtual Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine conference.

Barbara Trautner, M.D., Ph.D., professor, Health Services Research, co-lead Genentech's Phase III EMPACTA trial at MEDVAMC. The results are out and showed a reduction in need for mechanical ventilation in the tocilizumab arm versus placebo. Read the press release.

July 2020

IQuESt 2020 Outstanding Faculty Educator awards were given to recognize educational accomplishments on the local and national level, including teaching, curriculum development, educational innovation, scholarship, and mentoring.  Awardees include:

  • More than five years at IQuESt: Amber (Amy) Bush Amspoker, Ph.D., assistant professor, Section of Health Services Research and statistician
  • Early Career: Molly Horstman, M.D., assistant professor, Section of Health Services Research and investigator

Barbara Trautner, M.D., Ph.D., professor, Section of Health Services Research, received publicity in VAntage Point, “Houston VA begins clinical trial for COVID-19 treatment”.

Hardeep Singh, M.D., MPH professor, Health Services Research, served as a technical expert panel member for the RAND Corporation report "Health Services and Primary Care Research Study Comprehensive Report" which identified research gaps and proposed strategies for better coordination across the Federal enterprise.

May 2020

Hardeep Singh, M.D., MPH, professor, Health Services Research, was interviewed by NBC News for an article “Health care experts say coronavirus exposes major flaws in medical system”.

Hardeep Singh, M.D., MPH, professor, Health Services Research, was interviewed by Deseret News for their 5/8 article “Here’s what the future of health care looks like after the coronavirus”. Also in the news on 5/20 by Becker’s Hospital Review, “8 COVID-19-related diagnostic errors to know”, EHR Intelligence, “COVID19 Proves Need for National Health IT Infrastructure”, and news wise, “Why having a national health information technology infrastructure could help save lives”.

Hardeep Singh, M.D., MPH, was recently nominated to the National Academies’ Board on Health Care Services. The Board on Health Care Services promotes independent, scholarly analysis of the organization, financing, effectiveness, workforce, and delivery of health care, with emphasis on quality, cost, and accessibility

Daniel Murphy, M.D., MBA, assistant professor, Health Services Research, is a recipient of the 2020 Baylor Faculty Awards for excellence in education, patient care, professionalism and service. While there is no ceremony as originally planned, the virtual announcement with congratulatory messages from Dr. Paul Klotman and Dr. Alicia Monroe now is viewable online on the Baylor website and on YouTube.

April 2020

On April 13, 2020, PBS Houston Matters interviewed Dr. Vivian Ho and Dr. Gabriela Bowden for “Experts in health economics and microbiology answer listeners’ questions about COVID-19”, in which Dr. Ho discussed our society’s response to COVID-19 and the current models and strategies for a return to relative normalcy.

Dr. Hardeep Singh was interviewed by life hacker for an article on April 21, 2020, “What Does ‘Peak’ Infection Mean?”.

Dr. Vivian Ho had several items in the news on April 3, 2020: “Analysis: $100B stimulus package won’t be enough for health care industry,” Houston Chronicle on April 3rd, “COVID-19 Slows The Census Count, And A Truck Full Of Toilet Paper Goes Up In Flames: The Good, Bad, And Ugly Of The News,” and Houston Matters “Financial losses from treating COVID-19 patients could devastate health care sector, experts say.”

On April 6, 2020, ARUP Laboratories featured a recent podcast by Dr. Hardeep Singh: “An interview with Dr. Hardeep Singh: Focusing on the Fundamentals Prevents Diagnostic Errors.”

Hardeep Singh, M.D., MPH, professor, Health Services Research, has been appointed to the Patient Safety Measures of Hospital Harm Technical Expert Panel (TEP) for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Measure Instrument Development and Support (MIDS) Patient Safety. The purpose of this project is to develop, maintain, reevaluate, and implement patient safety measures, including electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) for falls, postoperative bleeding, and diagnostic errors for CMS’ hospital-level quality reporting programs. This project aims to improve patient safety and reduce or eliminate hospital-acquired conditions (HACs), and to evaluate and address performance gaps, identify and incentivize opportunities for improvement.

On April 6, ARUP Laboratories featured a recent podcast by Hardeep Singh, M.D., MPH, professor, Health Services Research, “An interview with Dr. Hardeep Singh: Focusing on the Fundamentals Prevents Diagnostic Errors”.

Laura Petersen, M.D.. MPH, professor and chief, Health Services Research, serves on many committees including the following:

  • Co-Chair of the Texas Medical Center Clinical Research Design Team
  • Member, Texas Medical Center Strategic Planning Initiative Steering Committee
  • Member, Texas Medical Center Council of Research Directors
  • Chair, Internal Advisory Committee, CPRIT Training Program, “Cancer Prevention Post-Graduate Training Program in Integrative Epidemiology,”
  • Health Policy Scholar, Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy
  • Member, BCM Department of Medicine Vice Chair for Research Committee
  • Member, Health Resources and Services Administration-funded BCM Center of Excellence in Health Equity, Training, and Research Advisory Council
  • Member, BCM Department of Medicine Chief of Pulmonary/Critical Care/Sleep Search Committee
  • Member, BTGH Chief of Medicine Search Committee
  • Member, BCM Joint Research Steering Committee for COVID-19 Recovery Planning
  • Member, Organizing Committee, BCM Health & Science Policy Research Day

March 2020

Vivian Ho, Ph.D., professor, Health Services Research, was quoted in the March 5th issue of TMC News, in an article titled “Census 2020 participation is vital to public health”.

On March 29, 2020, Dr. Sara Nowakowski did a podcast interview, “Odd Bedfellows: Sleep and Menopause”.

Dr. Sylvia Hysong wrote a March 18, 2020, article in SIOP Newsbriefs titled “COVID-19 and Public Health Emergencies: What I-O Psychologists Should Know.”

A recent issue brief funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) urges a strategic focus to advance diagnostic safety measurement. The brief—with Dr. Hardeep Singh, as the first author and Dr. Andrea Bradford as the second author—calls for healthcare organizations to begin to measure diagnostic safety and provides practical guidance for those new to measurement of diagnostic errors.

Published March 23, 2020, in Outside the Box, “Retirees get religion: Aging happier takes a little faith”, Dr. Mark Kunik talks about the intensified role religion plays for retirees.

February 2020

IQuESt Annual Excellence in Service Faculty Award winner is Kyler Godwin Ph.D., assistant professor, Health Services Research, for her high degree of excellence in service and leadership in a sustained manner to the mission and values of IQuESt.

ECRI Institute’s Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety released new implementation guidance for closing the loop on diagnostic testing and referrals, which was heavily informed by Hardeep Singh, M.D., MPH, professor, Health Services Research, and his team’s research. Read the press release “Failure to Track Diagnostic Results Puts Patients at Risk”. In addition, VA’s Office of Research & Development covered in their VA research in action, “New tools to reduce delays in diagnosing cancer”.

Jessica Davila, Ph.D., associate professor, Section of Health Services Research, was  appointed to the VA HERC Expert and Stakeholder Forum. The mission of the VA Health Economics Resource Center (HERC) is to increase the quality of VA health economics research and cost-effectiveness studies so that the nation and the nation’s Veterans may get the best possible health care value from available resources.

Hardeep Singh, M.D., MPH, professor, Section of Health Services Research at Baylor College of Medicine co-led two working groups at a World Health Organization (WHO) meeting to launch “A Decade of Patient Safety 2020-2030: Formulating the Global Patient Safety Action Plan” on February 24-26, 2020 in Geneva, Switzerland. This Flagship Initiative was launched by WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in response to a 2019 World Health Assembly resolution ‘Global Action on Patient Safety’. Dr. Singh co-led working groups focused on “Patient safety research and innovation” and “Global Patient Safety Challenges” and was invited to contribute to the development of a global patient safety action plan that will provide policy advice, strategic guidance.

January 2020

Barbara Trautner, M.D., Ph.D., professor, Section of Health Services Research, was quoted in an article in Parentology Magazine, “Parents Unintentionally Harm Children with Nonprescription Antibiotics”.

Dr. Hardeep Singh was quoted in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise on Jan. 10, 2020, “When the patient is the diagnosis.”

Heading

2019 News

Content

Barbara Trautner, M.D., Ph.D., professor, Section of Health Services Research. KPRC Channel 2 News did a feature story “High cost of prescription drugs driving consumers to flea markets for medicine” quoting Dr. Trautner as coverage from 2019 Annals of Internal Medicine article, “Use of Antibiotics Without a Prescription in the U.S. Population”. Other coverage includes CNN Health “People in the United States are misusing antibiotics, study says”.

The Joint Commission (TJC) put out a Quick Safety Issue on Dec. 17, 2019: “Advancing safety with closed-loop communication of test results.” This was informed by the work done by Dr. Hardeep Singh and his Houston DISCovery (Diagnosis Improvement Safety Center) team.

Dr. Barbara Trautner had her recent JAMA Network Open editorial mentioned in the Sept. 24, 2019 issue of MedPage Today’s article “USPSTF: Only Screen for Symptom-Free Bacteriuria in Pregnancy.”

Drs. Barbara Trautner and Larissa Grigoryan were interviewed by KPRC Channel 2 News in Sept. 2019: “High cost of prescription drugs driving consumers to flea markets for medicine.”

AcademyHealth invited Drs. Tejal Gandhi (Institute for Healthcare Improvement) and Hardeep Singh to write a blog appearing on Sept. 13, 2019, on the occasion of the first World Patient Safety Day on Sept. 17. This blog has important implications for health services research and mentions VA’s and IQuESt work in the area of improving patient safety.

Drs. Tracy Smith and Hardeep Singh were mentioned in the Sept. 2019 issue of TMC’s Pulse magazine.

Dr. Aanand Naik was interviewed on Aug. 8, 2019 by Medscape“Telephone Counseling Aids Vets With Diabetes and Depression”. This interview was based on a publication in JAMA Network OpenMedwireNews also covered this news “Telephone intervention yields mixed results for those with depression, diabetes.”

An article in Parentology, “Parents unintentionally harm children with nonprescription antibiotics,” is a result of continued coverage from an Annals of Internal Medicine publication, “Use of Antibiotics without a Prescription in the United States Population: A Scoping Review” by IQuESt co-authors Drs. Larissa Grigoryan, Jean Raphael and Barbara Trautner.

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition article, “Dietary quality and colonic mucosa-associated gut microbiome in humans”, published July 10, 2019, by IQuESt co-authors Drs. Hashem El-Serag, Donna White, Liang ChenJennifer Kramer, Ruben Hernaez, Jason Hou, and Fasiha Kanwal received multiple media coverage, including EurekAlert!, HCP, and ASCO Post.

Drs. Larisa Grigoryan, Jean Raphael and Barbara Trautner’s recent Annals of Internal Medicine publication received multiple news coverage, including the following:

Dr. Aanand Naik was interviewed for a July 10, 2019 article in BCM News titled “Grant from HRSA to establish Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program.”

Aanand Naik, M.D., professor and chair, Huffington Center on Aging, and professor, Health Services Research, was awarded a grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) that will focus on integrating geriatrics into primary care training.  The grant will support the establishment of the South East Texas Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program (SETx-GWEP), a network of health professions schools and community-based organizations to develop a healthcare workforce that maximizes patient and family engagement while improving health outcomes for older adults by integrating geriatrics and primary care.

Dr. Hardeep Singh presented at the VA Research Day on Capitol Hill featuring scientific exhibits & interactive demonstrations. The VA’s Drs. Rachel Ramoni, Chief Research and Development Officer, and Carolyn Clancy, Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Discovery, Education, and Affiliate Networks, gave the opening remarks. Read coverage of the June 20, 2019 event.

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