CADRE Earns Five-Year Renewal

Cutting-edge research into how health care is delivered safely, efficiently, and with the greatest benefit to the patient has been happening at the Iowa City VA Medical Center, conducted by members of the Center for Access and Delivery Research & Evaluation (CADRE), for more than five years. Led by Director Eli Perencevich, MD, MS, and Associate Director Heather Reisinger, PhD, CADRE’s application for renewal was approved to be one of the VA Health Services Research & Development’s Centers of Innovation (COIN).

Iowa City’s CADRE is one of now 18 COINs, from Rhode Island to California, renewed through 2024. It is not difficult to see how CADRE presented a compelling argument. Members of CADRE have been steadily demonstrating their effectiveness as researchers, scholars, educators, and clinicians for years. Here is just a sample of some of recent CADRE member VA and non-VA recent scholarly achievements:

• Dr. Michihiko Goto has formed a Patient Safety Center of Inquiry focused on antimicrobial stewardship with a three-year, $778,000 grant from the VA.

• Dr. Hilary Mosher successfully renewed Iowa City’s bid to host one of six VA Quality Scholars Programs in the country.

• Dr. Mary Vaughan-Sarrazin received a three-year, $950,000 R01 NIH grant to evaluate the use of four FDA-approved anticoagulants for stroke prevention in individuals with atrial fibrillation.

• Dr. Michael Ohl received a four-year, $2M grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to expand delivery via telehealth technology of HIV prevention drugs to rural populations.

• Dr. Perencevich and Dr. Marin Schweizer—along with other Department of Internal Medicine faculty including Dr. Loreen Herwaldt, Dr. Daniel Diekema, and Dr. Phil Polgreen—have successfully renewed the University of Iowa’s bid to be one of the CDC’s Prevention Epicenters, a distinction first earned in 2015. (More on this story to come.)

Commenting on CADRE’s renewal as a COIN, Dr. Perencevich said that he is grateful for the VA’s support. Though there are plenty of areas in health services that need attention that each COIN addresses, CADRE members focus intensely on a number of critical areas that if properly understood and adjusted could result in meaningful change throughout the health care system. Preventing multidrug-resistant healthcare-associated infections, improving access to primary and subspecialty care for rural veterans, or ensuring people receive only and as much of a particular kind of medication are each monumental tasks to effect change. “But realizing improvements in any one of these areas can produce incredible amounts of benefit for patients, providers, institutions, and the healthcare system as a whole,” Dr. Perencevich said. “We’re excited to see what CADRE investigators will do in the next five years.”