Principal Investigator
Christianne Roumie, MD, MPH
Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics and Health Policy
Director, Master of Public Health Program, Vanderbilt University
Deputy Director, Nashville VA Quality Scholars TVHS
Dr. Roumie’s research has focused on the design and execution of interventions to improve cardiovascular risk factors among patients and ultimately lead to decreases in cardiovascular morbidity. She has spent many years understanding population-based approaches, including observational epidemiology in caring for patients with cardiovascular disease. Her work is focused at the intersection of clinical epidemiology, patient outcomes, and dissemination science among patients with hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. She has become a clinical leader in the complex interactions between cardiovascular disease, risk factor control, and appropriate medication utilization. A major focus of her work has been in the development and implementation of a research portfolio that evaluates appropriate medication utilization as a barrier to optimal patient outcomes and as risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
Program Director
Carlos G. Grijalva, MD, MPH
Professor, Department of Health Policy and Biomedical Informatics, Division of Pharmacoepidemiology
Course Director, Epidemiology I, Protocol Development, and Thesis Research, Master of Publich Health Program, Vanderbilt
Dr. Grijalva’s research interests include the study of acute respiratory infections, the evaluation of medications and vaccines’ safety and effectiveness, and mother-child health. He is experienced in the conduct of observational studies of influenza, pneumococcal infections, SARS-CoV-2, pneumonia, infection transmission, vaccine effectiveness and the impact of medications on mother-child health. He is the Co-Principal Investigator for a new large prospective cohort study of viral infections among adult essential workers in middle Tennessee. He is also the VUMC Co-Principal Investigator for a prospective multicenter case-ascertained study designed to assess the transmission of influenza within households. In collaboration with International investigators, he has designed and conducted prospective cohort studies to examine the activity and interactions of common respiratory viruses and colonizing bacteria in Peru. He was also the project lead for a new Vanderbilt Trans-Institutional Program (TIPs), focused on the study of environmental drivers of antimicrobial resistance.
Executive Committee
Sunil Kripalani, MD, MSc, SFHM, FACP
Professor of Medicine
Vice President, Health System Sciences
Director, Center for Health Services Research
Dr. Kripalani directs the Center for Health Services Research and, as Vice President for Health System Sciences, is active in developing VUMC’s growing learning health system. He is an applied implementation scientist whose research interests include health communication, medication safety, care transitions, social determinants of health, implementation of evidence-based practice, and de-implementation of low-value care. His research has been funded by the NIH, AHRQ, PCORI, and CMS. He is PI on three NIH-funded studies to implement social drivers of health, genomic discoveries, and predictive models into clinical practice. Dr. Kripalani co-leads VUMC’s Health Systems Implementation Initiative, supports implementation science activities for the Vanderbilt CTSA and Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, and leads the research committee of the STAR Clinical Research Network. He has served as the PI or lead implementation science mentor on several postdoctoral research fellowships and faculty career development programs. Dr. Kripalani serves on the AHRQ National Advisory Council and on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Hospital Medicine.
Russell Rothman, MD, MPP
Director, Institute for Medicine and Public Health
Senior Vice President, Population and Public Health
Ingram Chair in Integrative and Population Health
Professor, Internal Medicine and Pediatric and Health Policy
As the Director of the Institute for Medicine and Public Health. The Institute for Medicine and Public Health engages over 250 faculty involved in research and education related to global health, epidemiology, health services research, health policy, biomedical ethics, biostatistics, and other fields. Key areas of research include implementation science, population health, behavioral research, health disparities, quality improvement, learning health system approaches, and other areas aimed at improving health outcomes. Dr. Rothman is an expert in health services research and health communication. His research focuses on improving care for adult and pediatric patients with diabetes, obesity and other chronic diseases. His research focuses on addressing health communication, health literacy/numeracy, and other social and behavioral factors to improve health. He is currently the Principal Investigator of the STAR (Stakeholders, Technology and Research) Clinical Research Network, which engages Vanderbilt, Meharry, Duke, UNC, Wake Forest, Health Sciences of South Carolina, and Mayo in real-world evidence and pragmatic research and include electronic health data on over 14 million patients.
David Stevenson, PhD
Professor and Chair, Health Policy
Vice Chair for Education, Health Policy
Director, Health Policy Track, Master of Public Health Program
Dr. Stevenson’s primary research interests are aging, end-of-life care, and long-term care, with a particular focus on quality and safety of care. His previous work has focused on a range of topics in these areas, including the evolution of Medicare’s hospice benefit, the role of ownership in the provision of hospice care and nursing home care, and regulatory quality oversight of hospice agencies and nursing homes. Dr. Stevenson maintains a strong focus on educational activities, including mentorship and teaching to medical students, residents, and fellows. He is Vice-Chair for Education in his department, serves as Health Policy track director in Vanderbilt’s MPH program, and is Co-Chair of the MD admissions committee at Vanderbilt. Dr. Stevenson is also the inaugural holder of an endowed Directorship in Health Policy Education.
Internal Advisory Committee
Robert Dittus, MD, MPH (Chair), Albert and Bernard Werthan Chair and Professor in Medicine, Executive Vice President, Public Health and Health Care, VUMC
Gordon Bernard, MD PI, Clinical and Translational Science Award, Professor of Medicine, Melinda Owen Bass Professor of Medicine
David Penson, MD, MPH, MMHC Hamilton and Howd Chair of Urologic Oncology, Chair of Urologic Surgery, Professor of Urologic Surgery, Medicine and Health Policy and Director of the Center for Surgical Quality and Outcomes Research
External Advisory Committee
Victor Montori, MD (Mayo Clinic)
Hayden Bosworth, PhD (Duke University Medical Center)
Patricia Patrician, PhD (University of Alabama Birmingham)
Kecia Carroll, MD, MPH (Mt. Sinai Medical Center)
Abel Kho, MD, MS (Northwestern University)
Andrea Borondy Kitts, MS, MPH (Patient representative)