Now in our second year, CoHSTAR’s efforts to increase physical therapy health services research capacity continue! CoHSTAR's four pilot studies show great potential to change physical therapy practice and policy. Our new visiting scientist, Janet Freburger, PT, PhD, joined the CoHSTAR team. We recently selected three new Faculty Fellows, Daniel Pinto, PT, DPT, PhD, OCS, FAAOMPT, an Assistant Professor at Northwestern University, Meghan Warren, PT, MPH, PhD, an Associate Professor at Northern Arizona University and Daniel Young, PT, DPT, PhD, an Associate Professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. CoHSTAR also welcomed our first postdoctoral fellow, Catherine Schmidt, PT, DPT, PhD. CoHSTAR's first Summer Institute on Health Services Research was a tremendous success and we will host the 2017 Summer Institute at Boston University on June 19-20. We look forward to welcoming colleagues back to Boston University for this landmark event. We are grateful to the Foundation for Physical Therapy for supporting CoHSTAR's efforts to advance health services research in physical therapy.
The inaugural CoHSTAR Summer Institute took place on June 22, 2016 at Boston University. There was great interest in the Summer Institute and we reached maximum capacity for attendance six weeks prior to the meeting registration deadline. We were pleased to welcome 100 attendees, including clinicians, faculty, post-doctoral fellows and graduate students. Attendees appreciated the content and quality of the presentations.
"The Summer Institute did a wonderful job of highlighting HSR success stories in physical therapy." - 2016 Summer Institute Participant
The opening night of the Summer Institute featured a reception, 22 excellent poster presentations and a keynote address by Dr. Pamela Duncan. Attendees mingled and engaged in discussions with poster presenters. The following day-long meeting included presentations of different health services research models from top researchers in the field and presentations from CoHSTAR Visiting Scientists. The sessions were webcast live and the archived webcast proceedings are now available for viewing. Just click here to view the archived webcast proceedings for free!
We are grateful to the speakers and poster presenters for sharing their expertise. We also want to thank participants (webcast and in person) for contributing to the success of our first Summer Institute. We hope you found the Institute informative, and we hope you will join us for the 2017 Summer Institute.
CoHSTAR Director, Linda Resnik, welcomes participants.
Dr. Sangoseni's qualitative comparison of evidence based practices for physical therapy in different settings. Drs. Jette, Fitzgerald and Goode making some #CoHSTARConnections Drs. Pam Duncan & Michael Johnson are ready for their presentation on health care industry collaboration
"[The Summer Institute]presentations gave a unique perspective on the progression of physical therapy research. Health services is truly the next step in improving the delivery of rehabilitation across the country." - Summer Institute Participant
CoHSTAR 2017 Summer Institute: Save the Date!
Building on the success of CoHSTAR’s 2016 Summer Institute, we are preparing for our 2nd Annual Summer Institute on Health Services Research on June 19-20, 2017! We selected the Summer Institute dates to coordinate with the 2017 NEXT Conference & Exposition, which will be held in Boston on June 21-24. Join us in Boston for CoHSTAR’s Summer Institute and stay for the NEXT Conference and Exposition!
Want to receive CoHSTAR Summer Institute 2017 updates? Sign up here!
Dr. Dan Pinto is an Assistant Professor at Northwestern University in the Department of Physical Therapy and Human Movement Sciences and the Center for Healthcare Studies, Feinberg School of Medicine. During his time as a CoHSTAR Faculty Fellow, Dr. Pinto will work with Dr. Thomas Trikalinos at Brown University.
"CoHSTAR’s support provides me with the opportunity to develop essential research skills in health services and policy research. Conducting network meta-analyses provides me with a systematic framework of describing the active ingredients of rehabilitation in order to design better treatments, and lays the foundation for decision analytic modeling and model-based cost-effectiveness analysis, essential tools for influencing policy."
Dr. Warren is an Associate Professor for the Program in Physical Therapy at Northern Arizona University. During her tenure as a CoHSTAR Faculty Fellow, she will be working with Dr. Theresa Shireman at Brown University.
"CoHSTAR will help enhance my productivity with health services research related to physical therapy."
Dr. Young is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy School of Allied Health Sciences, Division of Health Sciences at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. During his time as a CoHSTAR Faculty Fellow, he will be working with Dr. Alan Jette at Boston University.
"With the financial and mentored support of CoHSTAR, I am working as a visiting scientist at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore MD. I am helping to develop tools that measure patient activity and use the tools as follows: help care providers and administrators identify the impact of rehabilitation services; identify patients that would benefit from rehabilitation services; and identify patients that are at risk for harms without rehabilitation services. In addition to gaining skill in developing outcome measurement tools and practical use of those measurements in care pathways, I am gaining valuable mentoring on building research teams, fostering strong relationships within those research teams, prioritizing research questions and projects, and creating a pathway to independent funding in rehabilitation research."
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Catherine Schmidt, PT, DPT, PhD
Catherine received her PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences from the MGH Institute of Health Professions. During her time as a CoHSTAR Postdoctoral Fellow, she will be working with Dr. Vince Mor at Brown University.
“I am grateful to the Foundation for Physical Therapy for funding this outstanding postdoctoral opportunity through CoHSTAR and Brown University. Through expert mentorship across multiple disciplines at CoHSTAR I will advance my training within physical therapy health services research. As a postdoctoral fellow I will be investigating the utilization of physical therapy services among older adults with musculoskeletal spine disorders. Findings from this research have the potential to lead to recommendations to improve access to physical therapy care, ultimately leading to better functional outcomes and preventing the use of more costly interventions that carry higher health risks."
Dr. Adam Goode, an epidemiologist, physical therapist and Associate Professor at Duke University was CoHSTAR's first Faculty Fellow. This fellowship has provided a unique opportunity for Dr. Goode to work on major collaborative projects in health services research. Dr. Goode is collaborating with CoHSTAR Faculty Kelley Fitzgerald and Alan Jette on a manuscript describing the development of a patient reported outcome for knee osteoarthritis that can be readily implemented into electronic health records. He also leads a team of physical therapists and physicians at Duke University on a project that has collocated and integrated physical therapy into primary care for the evaluation of muscoloskeletal complaints.
Dr. Berg is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Toronto. She is also a fellow of interRAI, an international team of academics, clinicians and health policy professionals committed to developing standardized assessments to improve the quality of care to disabled populations. Within interRAI she is a member of the Instrument and System Development (ISD) Committee. Dr. Berg is continuing her work in leading the post-acute working group at ISD, as well as developing quality indicators for skilled nursing facilities that focus on early improvement of function and mobility with Dr. Vince Mor at Brown University.
Dr. Kristin Archer is an Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Orthpaedic Research in the Departments of Orthopaedic Surgery and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Archer is continuing her work with Drs. Delitto, Fitzgerald and Smith in methods of cost-effectiveness, analysis and pragmatic clinical trial design, along with methods for economic evaluation of health care programs.
Interested in pursuing a career in health services research?
CoHSTAR newsletters feature interviews with prominent health services researchers describing their career paths. We interviewed Dr. Janet Freburger, CoHSTAR's New Visiting Scientist.
CoHSTAR is pleased to welcome Janet Freburger, PT, PhD as our newest Visiting Scientist! Dr. Freburger has made significant contributions to the field of health services research. She is currently Associate Director of the Medical Practice and Prevention Program and a Senior Research Fellow at Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill.
Dr. Freburger’s interest in health services research began while she was a faculty member in the Department of Physical Therapy at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Freburger recognized the value of health services research because, “this type of research informs providers and policy-makers about ways to improve the quality of healthcare in the context of the current and often changing healthcare environment.” She decided to pursue a PhD in Health Services Organization and Research offered by the Department of Health Administration at VCU. After completing her doctoral training, Dr. Freburger completed a post-doctoral fellowship, supported by the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHRQ), at the Sheps Center, UNC and remained there as a Research Associate and Research Fellow following the completion of the fellowship.
Dr. Freburger is currently involved in three health services research studies related to physical therapy. She is a Principle Investigator (PI) for a study funded by the Health Resources & Services Association (HRSA) to examine factors associated with physician referral to physical therapy and to explore temporal trends. This research will help inform policy related to evolving models of care delivery (e.g., patient-centered medical homes, bundled payment, ACOs). Dr. Freburger is also Co-Investigator and Evaluation Lead for the Better Back Care study, which is funded by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare (CMS) to examine the effectiveness of interventions to improve the quality of primary care for persons with acute low back pain. One aspect of the intervention aims to promote appropriate and timely access to physical therapy. Finally, Dr. Freburger is a Co-Investigator on the ComPASS study (PI, Pamela Duncan, PT, PhD, FAPTA) which is a large pragmatic, randomized trial funded by the Patient Centered Outcomes Institute (PCORI). This study will investigate post-acute stroke care models aimed at improving patient functional outcomes and reducing hospital readmissions. During her time as CoHSTAR’s Visiting Scientist, Dr. Freburger will expand her interest in studying patterns of post-acute care utilization and transitions in care. Working in collaboration with her CoHSTAR mentor, Dr. Vince Mor at Brown University, she will use administrative claims data to examine post-acute care referral patterns.
Freburger recognizes the importance of health services research and observes, “We often get caught up in improving our clinical skills as therapists and have blinders on regarding how healthcare policy influences access to care and healthcare delivery.” She observes that physical therapists involved in health services research serve a vital role in helping the profession navigate the demands of our rapidly changing healthcare environment. Dr. Freburger maintains that “there is a need for physical therapists to be at the table for discussions and be involved in panels that CMS and other policy-makers organize to help inform decisions.” Dr. Freburger notes, “there is going to be more and more demand for individuals in our profession who have health services research knowledge and skills.” She recommends that physical therapists interested in a career in health services research seek proper training in an academic setting and pursue additional training outside of physical therapy programs to get a broader perspective.
CoHSTAR aims to promote health services research by facilitating connections between organizations with data to analyze and health services researchers. Get involved by liking us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CoHSTAR/ and following us on Twitter https://twitter.com/cohstar_pt.
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