Discovery
Academic Center for Evidence-Based Practice Celebrates 10 Years of Improving Healthcare New nationwide collaboration takes research to the next level
Ten years ago, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio School of Nursing launched the Academic Center for Evidence-Based Practice (ACE).
DR. KATHLEEN R. STEVENS RECENT RECOGNITION AND AWARDS * I n 2011, Dr. Stevens received one of nursing’s most prestigious research honors— Sigma Theta Tau International Episteme Award * As an Episteme Laureate, she will be inducted into the International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame in July 2012 *T he Baxter International Foundation’s Episteme Award acknowledges a major breakthrough in the development of nursing knowledge resulting in a significant benefit to the public. Dr. Stevens is being recognized for her work in patient safety based on research
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his center of excellence was created with the tasks of improving healthcare and patient outcomes. Those who joined this national and global movement have achieved much progress over the past decade. At the annual Summer Institute on Evidence-Based Practice, Kathleen R. Stevens, RN, EdD, FAAN and her team recalled their call to action: “Healthcare is not as good as it could be, and we are here to do something about it.” These visionaries reviewed the work already done and decided on future projects to take healthcare to a level never before achieved. “In the past 10 years, the ACE team has concentrated on projects that build upon each other. This work has progressed from evidencebased community interventions to systematic reviews and from team performance for patient safety to building a national infrastructure that advances improvement science,” said Dr. Stevens, ACE founding director. To date, ACE has garnered and invested $7 million in healthcare quality and patient safety, she explained. As the ACE leaders look to the future, they have created the Improvement Science Research Network (ISRN) for the coming decade of healthcare. The ISRN is a nationwide collaboration of interprofessional clinical and academic leaders developed to generate a robust science to accelerate quality improvements in patient care. Under the direction of Dr. Stevens, who is serving as principal investigator, the ISRN is funded by a two-year, $3.1 million grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research of the National Institutes of Health. This funding is provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The ISRN is guided by a steering council comprised of 15 healthcare experts from both public and private organizations together with the ISRN Coordinating Center, which is housed in the ACE at the School of Nursing. Because ACE and the ISRN Coordinating Center were founded on longstanding commitments to clinical and translational research, they have partnered with the Institute for Integration of Medicine and Science
8 TRIBUTE School of Nursing | The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
(IIMS) to further reduce barriers to interprofessional translational research and to strengthen the science of quality improvement. The ISRN’s cyber infrastructure will support the conduct of landmark improvement studies across multiple sites with great scientific rigor. Based on a website, the cyber infrastructure enables the virtual research center to conduct multisite network studies; expand scientific and human capacity to conduct improvement research; and accelerate dissemination of findings of improvement studies. In support of collaborative research studies across the 200 member national network, the website provides a place for secure communication, storage and sharing of documents, and data repository features for retrospective investigation. A collection of research instruments and state-of-the-science bibliographies also will be available on this website. To expand human capacity in improvement research, the ISRN offers conferences, web events, training resources, and match making between academic and clinical scholars in forming broad-based research collaboratives and expert guidance in conducting research and using statistics. As a major part of the strategic direction for research in this nascent field, the ISRN published its consensus statement on Research Priorities on the www.isrn.net website. On July 7, 2010, charter membership was opened and three national Network Research Studies were launched at the inaugural Improvement Science Summit. The three research topics are (1) frontline engagement for quality improvement, (2) preventing medication errors, and (3) team performance for patient safety. ACE has knitted the project functions throughout the IIMS for long-range sustainability and has engaged the services of Westat, Inc., of Rockville, Maryland, for support during the two-year infrastructure development. After that time, the ISRN will be co-supported by ACE and UT Health Science Center IIMS. For more information about ISRN, visit www.isrn.net or contact ISRN Project Manager Dr. Darpan Patel at pateld7@uthscsa.edu or 210-567-5813.