Overview
Cleveland Clinic Community Care's Center for Value-Based Care Research (CVCR) conducts research on novel interventions that improve value in healthcare by increasing quality and/or decreasing costs. We seek to deliver the right care, at the right time, to the right patients, at lower cost. Established in 2013, CVCR includes nine full-time investigators (MDs and PhDs) with primary appointments as well as adjunct faculty from health services and outcomes research groups from across Cleveland Clinic. CVCR researchers will employ multidisciplinary teams and community partnerships to conduct research focused on identifying and disseminating high value healthcare.
Mission and vision
Mission
To make quality healthcare possible for all Americans by conducting research to identify value in healthcare.
Vision
Cleveland Clinic Community Care's Center for Value-Based Care Research (CVCR) will be leaders in the development, implementation, evaluation and dissemination of value-based, patient-centered healthcare. CVCR will focus on the following areas:
- Development and use of personalized risk assessment and shared decision-making tools.
- Delivery system changes, including new care structures, payment models, incentive programs and care paths.
- Observational studies that take advantage of variation in care among a large number of providers to assess comparative effectiveness of interventions and to identify best practices to improve the quality of care.
- Novel uses of health IT, including decision support at the point of care, incorporating patient-reported information into medical decision-making, smart reminder systems and patient education.
- End-of-life care, with an emphasis on improving quality of life, patient autonomy, dignity and comfort.
A unique environment for value-based care research
Cleveland Clinic Community Care has a number of resources that make it uniquely positioned to pursue this work:
- The culture of Cleveland Clinic has always embraced innovation, and there are multiple initiatives under way to improve value-based care across the enterprise.
- As a staff model, integrated healthcare system using a shared electronic health record (EHR), Cleveland Clinic can both implement new programs and collect data on clinical outcomes through its EHR. With more than ten million visits annually, the EHR provides valuable information for comparative effectiveness and quality of care research.
- With nearly 400 primary care providers practicing in 70 locations throughout Northeast Ohio, Cleveland Clinic Community Care provides an ideal setting for conducting research about how to better structure primary care delivery. Innovative structures being studied include team care, in which medical assistants take on a larger role in the visit, including scribing, and the hiring of case managers to assist with care coordination.
- CVCR investigators work closely with statisticians in Quantitative Health Sciences to build personalized risk calculators based on data obtained from the EHR. These mathematical models can predict which patients will benefit from particular treatments and recommendations from the models can be incorporated into the EHR for use at the point of care.
Fellows Program
Cleveland Clinic Community Care's CVCR Fellows Program engages clinicians and staff in clinical research. The program includes didactic lessons and hands-on research experience through collaborations with seasoned research personnel. Fellows are appointed for an 18-month period, are expected to attend weekly meetings where they contribute their knowledge to colleagues' projects and complete at least one research project of their own.
Those interested in the program may contact Elizabeth Pfoh, PhD, MPH at pfohe@ccf.org.
