A Publication of the VA Office of Research & Development, Health Services Research & Development Service,

Management Decision and Research Center, in conjunction with the Association for Health Services Research

continued on page 2

HSR&D’s Career Development Program:

Investing in VA’s Future

By Robert Small and John G. Demakis, M.D.

FORUM

VA HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT MARCH 2000

What is the single most important

thing that VA’s HSR&D Service

has going for it? The answer is

simple: its nationwide network of

outstanding health services

researchers. Its researchers are

HSR&D’s most valuable assets. 

In 1990, HSR&D launched its

Career Development Program to

develop and nourish those assets.

The program has three goals: (1)

to help clinicians develop skills as

health services research investigators, (2) to encourage VA medical

center clinicians to pursue careers

in health services, and (3) to build

health services research capacity in

VA. Now entering its 11th year,

the program has realized its goals

and become a highly successful

capacity-building program for VA

health services research.

The quality of Career Development awardees entering the program has always been exceptional.

They come from leading academic

institutions and bring with them

training and demonstrated potential in their areas of interest.

While the quality of applicants continues to be high, admission to the

program remains selective. 

The program has grown over the

years, both in size and diversity.

Although 67 percent of our

awardees are general medicine

physicians, increasing numbers of

applicants with specialty backgrounds – including surgery, cardiology, neurology, infectious disease,

dentistry, psychiatry, clinical psychology, and nursing – have competed successfully for awards. This

fiscal year, HSR&D is proud to welcome its first two nurses to the program, and we are exploring ways to

create more opportunities in the

program for nurses and other clinicians. 

New Awards Create 

New Opportunities 

To make the program more accessible while at the same time protecting the core awards, the Research

Career Development and the

Advanced Research Career

Development awards, the Office of

Research and Development last

year introduced two new programs

of training awards. The Clinical

Research Career Development and

Associate Investigator programs

help prepare clinicians and nonclinician PhDs just starting out in

research to compete for future

Career Development or other merit

review awards. 

The Clinical Research Career

C DIRECTOR’S LETTER OMMENTARY

Having completed the tenth

year of the HSR&D Career

Development Program, it’s a

good time to take a look at where

we’ve come from, what we have

gained, and what we hope for

the future of the program, the

jewel in the crown of HSR&D. 

This special supplement to

FORUM offers a short history

of the Career Development

Program, an overview of the

program’s opportunities, and a

description of the various program elements and eligibility

requirements. We are very

proud of all of our Career

Development awardees and, in

illustration, provide brief profiles of six awardees to give a

sense of the depth and breadth

of the program. 

Another way that HSR&D

builds capacity is through our

collaboration with the Office of

Academic Affiliations to provide pre- and post-doctoral

training opportunities. In this

issue, we supply general information about training opportunities and contact information

for specific training sites. 

One of my key priorities is

to continue to grow these programs and reap the benefits of

our expanded health services

research capacity. Thanks in

part to these programs, we can

look forward to a bright future.

John G. Demakis, M.D.

Director, VA HSR&D Service

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT

W hile the quality of

applicants continues to be

high, admission to the program remains selective. 
2

Development Program was developed to provide fully trained clinicians of all types who have doctoral

degrees with up to three years of

salary and research support to complete didactic training and develop

clinical research skills. The program, including the basic award,

has changed significantly since its

announcement last June, and it is

now administered by the

Cooperative Studies Program.

The Associate Investigator

Program is our most junior-level

program and is open to clinicians

and non-clinician post-doctoral

researchers with little or no

research experience. Associate

investigators are appointed to work

as trainees under the supervision of

funded principal investigators for

the duration of the sponsoring

investigator’s project or for a maximum of four years. 

The Associate Investigator and

Clinical Research Career

Development programs offer two

new avenues of Career

Development. We believe this will

enhance the overall value of Career

Development as a mechanism for

recruiting young talent into VA. It

is important to remember that these

programs can be used as recruiting

Commentary

continued from page 1

C OMMENTARY

tools to bring bright, talented clinician and non-clinician postdoctoral

researchers into VA. To be considered, they need not be VA employees at the time they apply.

In 1998, a final tier of Career

Development awards was added to

provide established VA independent investigators a sabbatical

opportunity to pursue up to one

year of training in a new area of

research. This Career

Development Enhancement award

is available to established clinician

investigators who have been with

VA for at least six years.

Although not technically a developmental program, the Research

Career Scientist Program is considered a complementary adjunct to

the Career Development Program.

It was established as a way to recognize the contributions of selected

outstanding VA non-clinician scientists who have distinguished themselves as health services

researchers, have been active in

mentoring and teaching roles, and

have achieved national recognition

as leaders in their areas of expertise. There are two levels of this

award, Research Career Scientist

and Senior Research Career

Scientist. Although the award

originally provided recognition

only, it was revised in 1998 to provide salary support as well. 

HSR&D funds six Research

Career Scientist awards and two

Senior Research Career Scientist

awards. Unlike Career Development awards, these are renewable

indefinitely. Rudy Moos, Ph.D.,

Senior Research Career Scientist

and Director of the HSR&D Center

of Excellence in Palo Alto, was the

first person to receive an HSR&D

RCS award, back in 1991. Last

year, Dr. Moos also became the

first recipient of the VA Under

Secretary’s Award for Outstanding

Achievements in Health Services

Research.

An Important Investment 

in VA’s Future

As we set new goals for the Career

Development Program, we will continue to measure its success by the

productivity of awardees, the success we have in keeping them

employed in VA, and the active

roles they assume in training and

mentoring the next generation of

health services researchers. So far,

we have scored high marks on all of

these points.

continued on page 6

Pre- and Post-Doctoral Training

Programs at VA HSR&D

The VA has several important missions, including education. In

keeping with this mission, HSR&D collaborates with the Office of

Academic Affiliations (OAA) to sponsor pre- and post-doctoral training programs in health services research and medical informatics.

These training programs are a national resource for building health

services research expertise both within VA and in the greater health

care community.

All of the pre- and post-doctoral training programs are conducted

at OAA approved training sites and are administered locally at these

sites. To apply, contact the local sites for these programs (see page

8). For general information about HSR&D collaborations with the

OAA, please contact: Jay A. Freedman, Ph.D., at 202/408-3662, or

email Jay.freedman@mail.va.gov.

W e will continue to

measure the program’s

success by the productivity

of awardees, the success we

have in keeping them

employed in VA, and the

active roles they assume in

training and mentoring

the next generation of

health services researchers.
3

Career development opportunities

are available to VA health services

researchers at virtually every stage

of their career, from young investigator to established scientist.

Following are brief descriptions of

the four HSR&D Career Development awards, each containing key

information about the purpose of

each award, eligibility requirements, duration of award, salary

and support, and work site requirements. For more information

about the awards, contact Robert

Small at 202/273-8256 or email

robert.small@mail.va.gov.

Associate Investigator 

Purpose: To provide supplemental funds to principal investigators

of funded, ongoing merit review

projects to support a trainee.

Associate Investigator funds may

also be used to provide post-doctoral

research experience for clinician

and non-clinician scientists with

little or no research experience.

Only mentors who are senior principal investigators of VA R&D nonmentored, national peer reviewed

research awards or senior investigators at VA Centers of Excellence

can provide supervision for

Associate Investigators.

Eligibility: Applicants may hold

M.D., D.D.S., or Ph.D. degrees.

Applicants who hold an M.D. or

D.D.S. degree must have completed

their residency, clinical specialty,

or sub-specialty training within the

past two years. Ph.D.s must have

received their degree within four

years of application and must have

been engaged in post-doctoral

research activities during that period.

Duration: Participants may be

approved for an appointment term

of up to two years, with a possible

extension of one or two years. The

proposed appointment period may

not exceed the award period of the

mentor’s funded project and in no

circumstances may exceed four

years. Upon successful completion

of this program, candidates are

expected to apply for HSR&D

Career Development or Merit

Review awards.

Salary and Support: Associate

Investigator appointments are considered time-limited appointments.

Salaries are determined locally, but

may not exceed the level for

Intermediate Grade Step 1 (GS-13)

for Title 38 physicians and dentists. Associate Investigators are

excluded from all elements of

physicians’ and dentists’ special

pay. 

Non-clinician Ph.D. applicants

may be appointed under Title 5.

Grade determinations are determined locally, but appointments

may not be made above the level of

GS-11. 

Title 38 and Title 5 employees

are required to meet the VA and

federal appointment hiring and citizenship requirements as applicable. During the appointment

period, Associate Investigators are

not eligible to receive other VA

research funding.

Research Career

Development

Purpose: To provide time, salary,

and research support to fully

trained clinician-investigators who

are entering or have recently

entered a research career, for a

period of concentrated health services research activity. The goal

for awardees at this level is to

acquire sufficient proficiency to

compete for HSR&D merit review

funding and/or an Advanced

Research Career Development

award.

Eligibility: Applicants must have

completed clinical training, be

board-certified, not be more than

five years beyond completion of

their last clinical training or fellowship, and may have five years or

less of post-doctoral research training. An appropriate academic

appointment for applicants is the

instructor level.

Duration: These awards are for

three years and are not renewable,

but awardees may apply for the

Advanced Research Career

Development award at the end of

their award period.

Salary and Support: All

appointments are on a temporary,

full-time basis as time-limited

appointments, unless the awardee

already holds a career appointment.

In addition, all appointments are

subject to applicable qualification

requirements. If the awardee is

serving under a Title 38 appointment, written notification must be

provided of this change in employment status, protection and benefits.

Grade determination for Title 38

and Title 5 awardees are determined locally. 

Physician and dentist awardees

are authorized to receive all components of special pay for which they

are eligible. 

Title 38 and Title 5 employees

are required to meet applicable VA

and federal appointment hiring

requirements. Documentation of

an applicant’s eligibility for VA

employment must be provided with

the Letter of Intent. The employment application process should be

coordinated with the local Human

Resource Management office to

assure that applicants meet VA

appointment regulations. The

associate chief of staff for R&D, or

responsible VHA facility management official, is responsible for

ensuring that current employees

are converted to the applicable

appointment authority upon receiving a Career Development award.

If an awardee does not have at

An Overview of HSR&D’s 

Career Development Opportunites 

continued on page 7
David Asch

For David A. Asch, M.D., M.B.A., the

HSR&D Career Development Award

could not have come at a better

time. In 1994, when Dr. Asch began

receiving the award, he was an associate scholar at the University of

Pennsylvania’s (UP) Center for

Clinical Epidemiology and

Biostatistics, as well as a fellow at the UP’s Center for

Bioethics and Institute on Aging and just a few years

into his appointment as an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (UP). He was

also chief of general internal medicine at the VA

Medical Center (VAMC) in Philadelphia.

“I was just beginning to concentrate and focus my

research interests in a particular area, of understanding how patients and clinicians make medical decisions,” Dr. Asch recalls. “I was in a very good

environment, with a lot of supportive and experienced

senior colleagues to help me along, but I needed the

funding that would give me the time to make the best

use of that environment.”

In addition, he says, “because my area of research

interest was relatively unusual, it was even harder for

me to identify more traditional sources of funding.”

Then again, he notes wryly, “when you’re trying to

get funding, it always seems hard.”

Currently, Dr. Asch is executive director of the

Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at UP.

He is also the Robert D. Eilers associate professor of

medicine and health care management and economics

at UP. His work in medical decision-making, medical

ethics, and health economics has been widely published. He continues to do his clinical work at the

Philadelphia VAMC, and the VA remains the locus of

his career..

The Career Development Award, Dr. Asch says,

“was probably the most defining impact on my work

... I can’t imagine what would have happened if I

hadn’t gotten it. It really made a huge difference.” 

Jennifer Daley

For Jennifer Daley, M.D., receiving

the HSR&D Senior Career

Development Award was a life-changing experience. Without it, Dr. Daley

says, she would not have nearly as

much time to devote to her highly

regarded research in quality measurement and improvement. “It made an

enormous contribution to my development as a

researcher and a professional,” she says.

Dr. Daley received the award from 1990 to 1996, during which time she was associate director and then

director of HSR&D at the Brockton-West Roxbury VA

Medical Center (VAMC). Her research and quality

improvement activities focused on access to care,

patient satisfaction, utilization and outcomes in

ischemic heart disease, and the development of a major

system for measuring and improving surgical outcomes,

the VA National Surgical Quality Improvement

Program, which she continues to lead.

When she received the award, Dr. Daley had been

working in the quality improvement field for about five

years. Although it was an active area of research and

investigation, it was also quite competitive and funding

was not always readily available, she recalls.

“The Career Development Award gives you time to

focus on developing your research,” she says. “I never

would have had this opportunity without the VA.”

Dr. Daley is also an attending physician at the

Brockton-West Roxbury VAMC and a member of the

committee that reviews applications for the Career

Development Award Program. “I love veterans and I

love caring for them,” Dr. Daley says. “I still feel like I

want to give back to the VA.” In addition to her work

in the VA, Dr. Daley is currently the director of the center for Health System Design and Evaluation at

Massachusetts General Hospital and Partners

HealthCare System.

She says she continues to be very enthusiastic about

the Career Development Award Program. “It is an

unparalleled program for developing great HSR&D

investigators, and a wonderful place for nurturing

junior-level investigators.”

4

Profiles in Career Development: Building a Future 

in Health Services Research

Since its launch in 1990, HSR&D’s Career Development Program has been a success story–

or, rather, a series of success stories as reflected by the accomplishments of all of our Career

Development awardees. Following are brief profiles of six awardees, to provide a sense of the 

program’s breadth and depth.
Susan Hedrick

Susan C. Hedrick, Ph.D., received the

first-ever HSR&D Associate Research

Career Scientist Award in 1991. For

Dr. Hedrick, the award was an honor

of great significance. “The award was

important to me as a vote of confidence in my work,” she says. “It

helped support my choice of a career

in the VA, rather than elsewhere.”

Dr. Hedrick is associate director of the Northwest

HSR&D Center of Excellence in Seattle, WA, which she

joined in 1983. Her longstanding research focus is the

cost-effectiveness of interventions designed to improve

care for people with chronic illness. She has done considerable work on the cost-effectiveness of communitybased long-term care, including home health and adult

day health care.

Currently, Dr. Hedrick is principal investigator for

an HSR&D-funded randomized trial on the cost-effectiveness of patient, provider, and organizational interventions for treatment of depression in primary care.

The study is assessing the effect of integrated team care

versus consult-liaison care on symptom severity, quality

of life, satisfaction with care, and utilization and costs

of care. She is also leading an evaluation of the state of

Washington’s community-based residential care programs.

Dr. Hedrick says her career at VA has been rewarding, not only because she has been able to pursue her

research interests, but she has also enjoyed the opportunities for mentoring other health services researchers

in VA. 

VA, says Dr. Hedrick, “is an incredibly rich environment in which to do health services research. I’ve never

regretted my choice of the VA as the site for my career,

and receiving the Career Development Award helped

support that decision.”

Rudolf Moos

Rudolf H. Moos, Ph.D., already had

an established track record in health

services research when he first

received the HSR&D Research Career

Scientist Award in 1991. Now, the

recent renewal of Dr. Moos’ award is

helping him take his research in new

directions. “It allows me to be a little

bolder and to do research that may have a longer-term

payoff, rather than an immediate payoff,” he notes.

Dr. Moos currently serves as director of HSR&D’s

Center for Health Care Evaluation and the Program

Evaluation and Resource Center. In a career spanning

more than 35 years, he has worked to improve the lives

of veterans affected by substance abuse and psychiatric

disorders. Last year, he became the first recipient of

the Under Secretary’s Award for Outstanding

Achievement in Health Services Research.

With the support now provided by the Research

Career Scientist Award, Dr. Moos is pursuing three

research endeavors. The first involves developing measures of the structure, process, and quality of psychiatric and substance abuse care and using them to

evaluate program implementation and treatment outcomes. The second set of projects is comparing 12-step,

cognitive-behavioral, and eclectic programs on substance abuse and evaluating the role of community residential and outpatient mental health care services on

substance abuse treatment outcomes. The third set of

projects focuses on extra-treatment factors, such as

patients’ life stressors and social resources, and their

connections with treatment service use and outcomes.

Dr. Moos says the award helps researchers invest in

their careers and focus on areas of interest they might

not otherwise have sufficient protected time for. “The

award allows you to hone your expertise and, I believe,

really make more major contributions to research,” he

says. In addition, the award has afforded him more

time to mentor other health services researchers in VA

– an experience Dr. Moos believes has been beneficial all

around.

Alan Garber

Receiving the HSR&D Senior

Research Career Development Award

was an important milestone for Alan

M. Garber, M.D., Ph.D. At the VA,

Dr. Garber is the associate director of

the HSR&D Center for Health Care

Evaluation in Palo Alto. He is also

director of both the Center for

Primary Care and Outcomes Research and the Center

for Health Policy at Stanford University. Much of the

research that enabled him to start those programs, he

says, was a direct outgrowth of work he did while he

received the HSR&D award from 1991 to 1997.

“It was a very formative period of my career,” he

recalls. Dr. Garber started at Stanford in 1986 as an

assistant professor, becoming an associate professor in

1993. “By giving me the time I needed, the Career

Development Award allowed me to focus my efforts

more on developing research,” he says. 

For example, Dr. Garber did substantial work investigating the role of cholesterol screening as a method

for preventing coronary heart disease. Despite his commitment to this area of research, funding from conventional sources was difficult. “The Career Development

Award is unique as a funding source, in that it gives you

the freedom to do projects before you have external

funding for them,” he notes.

Dr. Garber subsequently became involved in helping

the American College of Physicians develop guidelines

for cholesterol screening. He also chairs the Medical

5
Invited Commentary

continued from page 2

Most awardees by their secondyear in the program have secured

funding as principal investigators

on their own HSR&D projects. In

addition to developing proposals

and competing for funding,

awardees are actively publishing in

leading journals. Of the 17 investigators who have graduated from

the program since 1990, 15 remain

associated with VA and continue to

contribute to the program by mentoring and training new awardees

or by serving on Career

Development or other HSR&D

review panels. Several Career

Development graduates have

assumed major leadership roles and

three are directors of HSR&D

Centers of Excellence. Others are

directors or associate directors of

other research or clinical centers or

hold positions of leadership, such as

service or section chief, at their

local hospital.

As long as it continues to fulfill

its three primary goals, the Career

Development Program will remain

one of VA’s most valuable investment mechanisms. In return for its

investment, VA receives a diverse

pool of young investigators on the

forefront of scientific knowledge.

Their contributions help advance

the overall mission of VA, and

many former awardees will go on to

represent VA as nationally or internationally recognized experts. 

An investment in Career

Development is an investment in

VA’s future. By providing sufficient time and a supportive environment, VA ensures that it will

continue to attract the most academically and clinically talented

health services researchers in the

country.

and Surgical Procedures Panel of the Health Care

Financing Administration’s Medicare Coverage

Advisory Committee. 

In addition to the financial support and recognition

that the Career Development Award provides, it also

fosters important mentoring relationships, Dr. Garber

notes. In particular, he says, he benefited from the

mentoring he received from Dr. Rudolf Moos, a recipient of the HSR&D Research Career Scientist Award.

“The Career Development Award Program made it

clear to me that VA is a great place to build a career in

health services research,” Dr. Garber says. “Like every

other Career Development awardee, I am genuinely

grateful. It really made a difference.”

Seth Landefeld

Charles Seth Landefeld, M.D., attributes much of his creativity as a

researcher to the HSR&D Career

Development Award he received from

1993 to 1997. “The Career

Development Award, for me, made

the difference between prosaic

research and creative, highly productive research on

improving patient care,” Dr. Landefeld says. “The program makes the difference between doing a good job

and doing a great job and developing your potential.”

Dr. Landefeld is currently chief of geriatrics at the

University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and

assistant chief of staff for geriatrics and extended care at

the San Francisco VA Medical Center.

He is also professor of medicine and epidemiology

and biostatistics at UCSF. 

When Dr. Landefeld received the award, he was an

associate professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve

University. He had already started work in what was to

be his major area of research, improving care for frail

elderly populations. The Career Development Award

supported him while he was investigating ways to

improve the use of anticoagulant therapy in elderly

patients, and developing and testing an intervention to

improve functional and quality-of-life outcomes in hospitalized elderly patients.

In addition to supporting his time as a researcher,

Dr. Landefeld says the award also supported time spent

developing exciting and important mentoring relationships. “It gave me time to spend with people, both

senior colleagues and junior colleagues, to develop ideas

and leverage our work,” he says. “The system of faculty

support does not pay for mentoring or building research

capacity at all, but the Career Development Award gave

me the flexibility to engage in these critical activities.”

Receiving the award also cemented his ties with the

VA. “I would not have been in the VA except for the

Career Development Award,” Dr. Landefeld says. As it

turns out, the VA is an ideal research environment for

him. “The VA is the only health care system in the country that formally supports geriatrics and aging care,” Dr.

Landefeld notes.

Dr. Landefeld gives the VA high praise for being out

front in developing a physician workforce in health services research. “There is very little out there that

invests in you as an investigator,” he says. “The Career

Development Awards are pure gold in that they’re

investing in you.”

6
7

least $10,000 per year in VA or nonVA research funding for supplies,

equipment, and staff support, supplemental funds may be requested

to bring his or her total research

funding to $10,000 per year. 

Work Site: Work must be conducted

in the same physical location at the

VA (or in VA-approved space) as the

awardee’s primary mentor, or near

the primary mentor, except in

unusual circumstances.

Advanced Research 

Career Development

Purpose: To provide time, salary,

and research support for a period of

concentrated health services

research activity to fully trained

clinician-investigators who have

some research experience but need

additional guided research experience to become fully independent.

During the award period, awardees

are expected to compete for peerreviewed research funds. The goal

for awardees at this level is to

acquire sufficient proficiency to

compete for HSR&D merit review

funding by the end of their award.

Eligibility: Applicants are encouraged to play a major role in a VA

peer-reviewed and funded research

project or other funded national

peer-reviewed project at the time of

application. Applicants must have

at least three years of post-doctoral

research experience and are expected to have had at least one firstauthored peer-reviewed publication

in the area of their proposed

research. An appropriate academic

appointment for applicants is at the

assistant professor level.

Duration: This award is for three

years and is non-renewable.

Salary and Support: All appointments are on a temporary, full-time

basis as time-limited appointments,

unless the awardee already holds a

career appointment, and are subject

to applicable qualification requirements. If the awardee is serving

under a Title 38 appointment, written notification must be provided of

this change in employment status,

protection, and benefits.

Grade determination for Title 38

and Title 5 awardees is determined

locally. 

Physician and dentist awardees

are authorized to receive all components of special pay for which they

are eligible. 

Title 38 and Title 5 employees

are required to meet the applicable

VA and federal appointment hiring

requirements. Documentation of an

applicant’s eligibility for VA

employment must be provided with

Letter of Intent. The employment

application process should be coordinated with the local Human

Resource Management office to

assure that applicants meet VA

appointment regulations. The associate chief of staff for R&D, or

responsible VHA facility management official, is responsible for

ensuring that current employees are

converted to the applicable appointment authority upon receiving a

Career Development award.

If an awardee does not have at

least $20,000 per year in VA or nonVA research funding for supplies,

equipment, and staff support, supplemental funds may be requested

to bring total research funding to

$20,000 per year.

Work Site: Applicants must conduct their research in a VA facility.

The awardee’s primary laboratory

must be located at his or her local

VA facility, and the research program of the awardee should enrich

the overall research program of the

sponsoring medical center.

Career Development

Enhancement

Purpose: To support established

clinician scientists who want time to

explore opportunities and obtain

training in new areas of research,

especially in areas of importance to

VA’s mission.

Eligibility: Applicants must have

at least six years of VA employment.

A sponsor who will facilitate and

make training available to the applicant is required. The applicant

must be a principal investigator on

an ongoing VA peer-reviewed and

funded research program.

Duration: This award, in conjunction with educational leave granted

by the applicant’s VA medical center, provides up to one year of sabbatical time and salary support. It

is not renewable.

Salary and Support: This award

provides salary, including fringe

benefits, for up to six months, which

must be matched, both in time and

salary, from educational leave

granted by the applicant’s VA medical center. Since educational leave

has been decentralized, awards are

contingent on decisions made at the

local VA medical center. Applicants

are required to submit documentation from their local medical center

indicating contingent approval of

educational leave in time and

amount. Awardees must devote 100

percent of their time to research. 

An Overview

continued from page 3

Martin P. Charns, D.B.A., Editor-in-Chief

Mary Darby, Editor

Geraldine McGlynn, Co-editor

ADVISORY COMMITTEE

John G. Demakis, M.D., Director, VA HSR&D

Rodney A. Hayward, M.D., VA HSR&D

Center of Excellence, Ann Arbor

David H. Law, M.D., VA Medical Center, 

Bay Pines, FL

Shirley Meehan, M.B.A., Ph.D., VA HSR&D

Alan S. Perry, M.H.A., FACHE, VA Medical

Center, Fresno, CA

Robert M. Roswell, M.D., VA Network #8,

Bay Pines, FL

Hanna B. Rubins, M.D., M.P.H., VA HSR&D

Center of Excellence, Minneapolis

Forum is a Publication of the VA Office of Research &

Development, Health Services Research & Development

Service, Management Decision and Research Center, in

conjunction with the Association for Health Services

Research.

F O R U M
8

American Lake

Robert Ottone

206/764-2848

robert.ottone@med.va.gov

Post-Doctoral MI

Ann Arbor

Janet Adams-Watson

743/930-5100

jan.adams-watson@mail.va.gov

Pre-Doctoral

Post-Doctoral Ph.D.

Bedford

Barrett Shepard

781/687-2861

bshepard@bu.edu

Pre-Doctoral

Post-Doctoral Ph.D.

Boston

Graeme Fincke

617/278-4267

graeme.fincke@med.va.gov

Post-Doctoral MI

Durham

W. Edgar Cockrell

919/286-6936

cockr001@mc.duke.edu

Pre-Doctoral

Post-Doctoral Ph.D.

Post-Doctoral M.D.

Hines

Carol Durczak

708/202-8387 x 25875

durczak@research.hines.med.va.gov

Pre-Doctoral

Houston

Frank Martin

713/794-7615

fhmartin1@earthlink.net

Pre-Doctoral

Post-Doctoral Ph.D.

Indianapolis

Dick Roskam

317/554-0000 x 4499

dick.roskam@med.va.gov

Post-Doctoral MI

Little Rock

Tony Davis

501/257-1734

davisanthony@exchange.uams.edu

Pre-Doctoral

Post-Doctoral Ph.D.

Menlo Park

Jan Beyer

650/493-5000

beyer.janice@mailsvr.icon.paloalto.med.va.gov

Post-Doctoral MI

Palo Alto

Jan Beyer

650/493-5000

beyer.janice@mailsvr.icon.paloalto.med.va.gov

Pre-Doctoral

Post-Doctoral Ph.D.

Post-Doctoral MI

Philadelphia

Patricia Wallace

215/823-6023

patricia.wallace@med.va.gov

Pre-Doctoral

Post-Doctoral Ph.D.

Post-Doctoral MI

Portland

Beverly Jefferson

503/273-5125

beverly.jefferson@med.va.gov

Post-Doctoral MI

Salt Lake City

Karen Bryan

801/582-1565 x 4857

karen.bryan@med.va.gov

Post-Doctoral MI

Seattle

Robert Ottone

206/764-2848

robert.ottone@med.va.gov

Pre-Doctoral

Post-Doctoral Ph.D.

Post-Doctoral M.D.

Sepulveda

Vera Snyder-Schwartz

818/891-7711 x 5488

vera.snyder@med.va.gov

Pre-Doctoral

How To Contact Local Training Program Sites

Following is a list of contacts for local training program sites, including the name, phone number, email address,

and the program(s) approved for each site. The four programs are: Pre-Doctoral Training; Post-Doctoral Training,

Associated Health, Ph.D.s; Post-Doctoral Training, Associated Health, M.D.s; and Post-Doctoral Training, Medical

Informatics (MI).