The University of Wisconsin - Madison Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) Community–Academic Partnerships component (ICTR-CAP) is organized as a federation of more than 40 programs and centers across the UW-Madison campus and Marshfield Clinic each providing resources to support community-engaged translational research. The ICTR-CAP Steering Committee consists of the faculty directors of federation programs and participates in strategic planning to support resource coordination, identify need... Read more
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We seek to transform advance innovate healthcare delivery and population health
We conduct health systems research that partners University of Wisconsin faculty with healthcare and community organizations to improve health across the state and nation.
Health Innovation Program Response to COVID-19
With the COVID-19 pandemic, Health Innovation Program researchers are quickly adapting their projects to support the state of Wisconsin and help those in the front line of the battle against COVID-19.
Learn about the different ways HIP is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic here.
Latest News
A new publication by Dr. Christie Bartels was recently featured in a press release by Wiley. Although smoking increases symptoms and health risks for patients with rheumatic diseases, interventions to help patients quit are rarely available at rheumatology clinics.
In this article, authors implemented a rheumatology staff-driven protocol, Quit Connect, to increase the rate of electronic referrals (e-referrals) to free, state-run tobacco quit lines (TQL). The group found that implementing Quit Connect... Read more
Latest Projects
Addressing Incontinence in Older Women
Project Description
To reduce or prevent incontinence in older women, we have designed and tested a workshop led by trained leaders to increase skills to control incontinence symptoms through lifestyle changes. “Mind Over Matter: Healthy Bowels, Healthy Bladder” has been shown to improve continence, quality of life, and self-efficacy. The program was tested in a randomized controlled trial and is now being adapted for digital delivery.
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BP Connect: Improving Blood Pressure Follow-Up
Project Description
High blood pressures are the most prevalent and reversible cardiovascular disease risk factors among adults with chronic conditions, who are often vulnerable to gaps between specialty and primary care. Increasing preventive services to address hypertension could prevent more early deaths than any other preventive service. To address these issues, the BP Connect staff protocol was created to connect patients with high blood pressure in a specialty visit back to primary care for timely follow-up.
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Bringing Patients’ Voices to American Healthcare
Project Description
Patient experience is an aspect of health and health care that has received increasing attention in the U.S. For patients and caregivers facing a new diagnosis, or needing to make a health-related decision, other people’s experiences of the same diagnosis, treatments, and impact on the life course have always been valued. With the advent of web-based health information, the influence of patient experience has grown even more rapidly.
Recognizing this gap, researchers at four universities—including UW-Madison—and the Veterans Administration formed a collaboration called the Health Experiences Research Network (HERN) in order to bring an internationally-vetted method of rigorously collecting diverse health experiences to the U.S.
In 2016, they launched www.HealthExperiencesUSA.org with an inaugural module on diverse young adults’ experiences with depression, a disease that can have significant consequences for future social, occupational, and health outcomes.
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Diabetic Foot Ulcers
Project Description
Rural patients with diabetic foot ulcers currently face 50% higher odds of major (above-ankle) amputation and 40% higher odds of death than their urban counterparts, a health disparity identified by Dr. Meghan Brennan’s team and others. Over 70% of Wisconsin residents live in rural areas, making this a particularly important topic to address in our state.
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Helping Young Adults Manage High Blood Pressure
Project Description
Approximately 1 in 15 young adults in the United States have high blood pressure, but young adults have the lowest rates of blood pressure control (achieving a blood pressure <140/90 mmHg) compared to other adult age groups, and many young adults have reported having few resources to address their needs for heart health education.
To address these problems, the MyHEART program was developed with young adults and healthcare team members to address a broad range of topics. MyHEART has multiple components, including young adult education and research programs across multiple healthcare systems.
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Helping Youth & Families with Diabetes Self-Management
Project Description
To prevent the long-term complications of diabetes among children, our program tailored diabetes self-management resources offered to children and their families at two pediatric diabetes centers, meeting the individual needs of over 2,200 Wisconsin children with type 1 diabetes (T1D) and their families. In addition, elements of this program were incorporated into diabetes clinics at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. The study’s methods for engaging youth and families has inspired others like the American Diabetes Association and the Wisconsin Department of Public Health to make use of similar strategies.
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Improving Diabetes Self-Management
Project Description
Management of diabetes lies almost entirely in the hands of those who live with the condition. The Wisconsin Institute for Healthy Aging and the Health Innovation Program are providing individuals with diabetes the resources they need for effective self-management of their disease.
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Increasing Colorectal Cancer Screening
Project Description
To prevent death from colorectal cancer, we increased colorectal cancer screening in UW Health clinics from 63% to 81% within four years and have maintained screening rates above 80% for the past five years. This represents an average increase of ~11,000 additional patients screened for colorectal cancer each year at UW Health.
We are currently working to expand our screening program across rural Wisconsin in partnership with the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality.
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Matching Complex Patients with Case Management Programs
Project Description
To find high-risk patients who might benefit from additional health and social services, we have developed and implemented an artificial intelligence system to identify patients in need of enhanced care coordination in partnership with one of our state’s largest health systems (UW Health). We are currently screening over 120,000 patients in Dane County each month using the system.
In the upcoming year, we will extend this system across the southern half of Wisconsin in partnership with one of the state’s largest health plans, screening an additional 166,000 patients each month.
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Opioid Prescribing: Balancing the Benefits of Pain Management with the Risks of Opioid Abuse
Project Description
Opioid misuse and abuse has become a significant public health problem in virtually all areas of the United States, including Wisconsin, where 827 people died from opioid overdoses in 2016-- up 35 percent from the previous year. Clinical guidelines for safer use of opioids were initially proposed in 2009, and have since evolved into the CDC’s widely publicized 2016 guidelines for opioid prescribing. The uptake of these guidelines has been variable across the U.S. healthcare system.
To assist in the uptake of clinical guidelines, University of Wisconsin researchers implemented a program to coach primary care doctors to follow opioid prescribing guidelines. This work was done through the use of a novel implementation strategy, called systems consultation, which was designed to promote clinical guideline implementation for opioid prescribing in primary care.
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Preventing Blindness with UW Teleophthalmology
Project Description
Diabetic eye disease is the leading cause of blindness among working-age adults in Wisconsin, where there are currently over 135,000 adults with diabetes. Early screening and treatment can prevent 90% of blindness, but only half of adults with diabetes get their recommended yearly eye screening.
In response, Dr. Yao Liu created the UW Teleophthalmology Program that enables patients in rural locations to get screened by their primary care providers during regular clinic visits without having to make a second trip or appointment. The images are then sent to UW-Madison, where eye specialists read the images and send reports back to primary care for local follow-up as needed.
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Primary Care Academics Transforming Healthcare
Project Description
The mission of the UW Health PATH collaborative is to bridge primary care clinical transformation and rigorous scientific study in order to improve our health system for the benefit of patients and communities. We will disseminate learnings locally and nationally, emphasizing scholarly contributions.
We are a multidisciplinary coalition of physicians and change leaders. Primary care Academics Transforming Healthcare (PATH) members are experienced in clinical delivery and span all three primary care departments (family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics), Quality, Safety, and Innovations, Population Health, and the Center for Patient Partnerships.
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Quit Connect Health: Improving Tobacco Quit Line Referrals
Project Description
To reduce tobacco use, we improved quit line referrals for tobacco users by 20-fold through Quit Connect, a 90-second clinic staff protocol that integrates the electronic health record with the Wisconsin tobacco quit line. This protocol is being implemented in both primary care and specialty care clinics in multiple Wisconsin health systems including Gundersen and UW Health, with a pending grant to implement at Grady Memorial public hospital in Atlanta (83% African American, 40% uninsured).
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Reducing Disparities in Healthcare
Project Description
To reduce disparities in healthcare quality, we are partnering with the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality and the Collaborative Center for Health Equity to measure and publicly report on disparities in the quality of healthcare in Wisconsin.
In 2019, we will release a statewide report documenting disparities in the quality of care for health systems across Wisconsin by race, ethnicity, and payer.
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The Family-Centered Rounds Checklist
Project Description
Family-centered care has many benefits, including improved clinical outcomes, increased patient and family engagement and satisfaction, and more effective use of health care resources.
In the hospital setting, one way to achieve these benefits is through family-centered rounds (FCR) at the bedside. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends FCRs as part of its policy statement on the pediatrician’s role in patient- and family-centered care.
Despite their benefits, FCRs can be challenging to operationalize at the institutional level. That’s why PROKids has developed a checklist to help implement FCRs effectively and sustainably.
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Sharing to transform health and healthcare
HIP supports the development and dissemination of tools for evidence-based health system and healthcare change through its website, HIPxChange. On HIPxChange, you’ll find tools to improve patient and family engagement, transitions in care, mental health, cancer screening and care, research tools, and more. Learn more
Our vision is to be the leading organization in the nation that integrates health systems research with clinical practice and community programs. Learn more
We are housed within the University of Wisconsin - Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.
HIP brings together investigators, trainees, and staff from a variety of schools and departments across the University of Wisconsin - Madison to examine current health care issues and identify ways to transform healthcare.
HIP provides investigators the resources they need to conduct health services research and work with our partners—from developing study ideas to disseminating results.
We are frequently looking for faculty, staff, and students to assist us in a variety of projects.
Our Partners
Partnerships with healthcare and community organizations are at the heart of our work.
Recent Publications
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Comparative workflow modeling across sites: Results for nursing home prescribing
Quality and Safety, Older Adults, Health IT, Dissemination and Implementation
HIP Investigator, Dr. Edmond Ramly et al. propose a methodology for comparative workflow modeling and evaluate its use through application to antibiotic prescribing in six nursing homes in two states in the United States.
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Increasing Medicaid enrollment among formerly incarcerated adults
Quality and Safety, Mental Health, Health Equity, Dissemination and Implementation, Chronic Conditions
HIP Investigator, Dr. Marguerite Burns et al. estimated the incremental associations between the implementation of expanded Medicaid eligibility and prerelease Medicaid enrollment assistance on Medicaid enrollment for recently incarcerated adults.
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Predictive Solutions in Learning Health Systems: The Critical Need to Systematize Implementation of Prediction to Action to Intervention
Quality and Safety, Learning Health System, HIPxChange, Health IT, Dissemination and Implementation
Authors, including HIP Investigators Dr. Maureen Smith and Dr. Brian Patterson, describe an approach to implementing predictive solutions that adapts the widely used Find-Organize-Clarify-Understand-Select–Plan-Do-Check-Act framework.
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Problematic Internet Use: A Longitudinal Study Evaluating Prevalence and Predictor
Quality and Safety, Children and Young Adults
Authors, including HIP Investigator Dr. Elizabeth Cox, assessed prevalence over time and predictors of problematic internet use using the Problematic and Risky Internet Use Screening Scale (PRIUSS) and also identified an intermediate-risk PRIUSS score.