Dissemination and Implementation

Dr. Maureen Smith, HIP Director, was recently featured in a video from the Wisconsin Partnership Program about her disparities project with the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality and the Collaborative Center for Health Equity. This project aims to develop and implement a publicly reported measure of disparity in the quality of care in Wisconsin and examine the sources of disparities in the quality of care. This video was introduced by HIP Outreach Specialist Lauren Bednarz, and shown at the Healthiest State Summit on September 20-21 in Green Bay, WI.

Patient engagement in research has become increasingly prioritized in recent years, as patients can provide unique and valuable feedback to researchers on the design, implementation, and dissemination of studies from the perspective of people the research seeks to help. However, researchers often lack the tools to effectively engage patient advisors in the research process.

HIP Investigators Meghan Brennan, MD and Heidi Brown, MD were recently awarded pilot funding through the University of Wisconsin - Madison Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (UW ICTR).  

The Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality recently released the Rural Wisconsin Chronic Disease Toolkit, and updated the Toolkit for Improving Hypertension Care & Outcomes and the Toolkit for Improving Diabetes Care & Outcomes.

Dr. Sarina Schrager in the UW Department of Family Medicine and Community Health and Terry Little in the UW Department of Radiology recently published the Breast Cancer Screening Shared Decision Making Toolkit. The goal of the toolkit is to help primary care providers engage in discussions with average risk women regarding breast cancer screening. The toolkit includes resources and supporting materials that offer health care providers information on topics such breast cancer risk factors, assessment, shared deciison making principles, and benefits and harms of breast cancer screening. View the toolkit on HIPxChange here.

In a recent study by Dr. Andrew Quanbeck et al., coaching primary care doctors on opioid prescribing guidelines resulted in a 11% drop in opioid doses at UW Health clinics. Conversely, doses increased by 8% at other clinics in the health system where the coaching program was not implemented. The results from the study come at a crucial time as the opioid abuse epidemic continues in the state and nationwide. 

African American young adults who have depression often suffer alone and lack the support and resources to manage their condition. In recent article in Ebony magazine discussing these issues, HealthExperiencesUSA.org is highlighted as a powerful resource that can help everyone better understand depression in diverse young adults. 

We're excited to welcome Edmond Ramly, PhD as a new faculty member at HIP! Edmond is a health systems engineer and new Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health. His work focuses on designing best practices for ambulatory care that balance standardization and local adaptations. Recently, he has worked closely with Dr. Christie Bartels to implement work system redeisgn for hypertension protocols.

HealthExperiencesUSA.org, a website created by Drs. Nancy Pandhi and Rachel Grob in partnership with DIPEx International to elevate the patient voice in American health care, was recently featured in a news story by News 3/Channel 3000. The story discusses how the website can be a helpful resource for young adults with depression by helping them hear other patients' stories about depression first-hand. One young adult from Madison said that the "words of the young adults on the website let others know there is help, and they are not alone." View the story here.