From the Director

Welcome to the Center for Health Services Research

sunil kripalani

The Vanderbilt Center for Health Services Research, a critical component of the Vanderbilt Institute for Medicine and Public Health, brings together more than 160 scientists and other professionals from across the Vanderbilt community. The Center has an overall program emphasis on developing, implementing, and evaluating interdisciplinary solutions to improve health care delivery and health outcomes for patients, families, and the community.

Members of the Center perform research and advance knowledge to create systems which provide care that is safe, timely, effective, patient-centered, efficient, and equitable, as envisioned by the Institute of Medicine. During the last several years, we have expanded our research in population health, implementation science, data science, optimal use of health information technologies, pragmatic clinical trials, health equity, social determinants of health, and other key areas. Strong relationships across Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and the Vanderbilt Health Affiliated Network (VHAN) greatly enhance our capacity to do research that is embedded in the real-world setting, both to generate new scientific evidence and translate that evidence into practice. We have also developed relationships with other organizations across the country and the world, in order to expand research and improve care nationally and internationally.

We continue to recruit and support trainees and faculty interested in health services and related research. In recent years, we have grown our training programs to support post-doctoral research fellows and junior faculty. The Center provides an ideal environment by facilitating collaboration and mentorship, and by providing educational activities, research space, grants management support, administrative support, biostatistical support, and services from our research support cores.

The Center strives to be a national and international leader in health services research, supporting interdisciplinary research and training in the learning health system to optimize the quality and value of health care delivery, and to improve patient and population health. Given the current complexities of the health care system and rapid transformation to create value based-health care, the role of the Center will remain essential in the years ahead. We remain dedicated to advancing research and health care delivery that improves the quality and equity of care for all.

Sunil Kripalani, MD, MSc 
Professor of Medicine and Health Policy
Vice President, Health System Sciences
Director, Center for Health Services Research