Center for Health Policy & Health Services Research

The Center for Health Policy & Health Services Research (CHSR) is a research unit within the Henry Ford Health.

Overview

The Center for Health Policy and Health Services Research at Henry Ford Health continued its impressive growth in 2021, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. The Center has expanded to now include three core areas: Health Policy, Health Services Research, and Healthcare Improvement.

In Health Policy, our team added a health policy advisor, Alexandra (Alex) Donnelly, along with a new masters-level social work internship program to provide training and additional support to aid our important role throughout the Henry Ford Medical Group and across Henry Ford Health. Our health policy team continued to serve an important role conducting analysis and research of key federal and state policies as well as supporting the system through comment letters, development of policy briefs and Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) demonstration models. In particular, the health policy team made important contributions to the system related to the COVID-19 pandemic, protecting provider reimbursement, and supporting innovation across the healthcare system.

In Health Services Research, we hired several new faculty members, Drs. Ashlee Vance, Elizabeth Lockhart, Hongsheng Gui, Hsueh-Han Yeh, and Leah Hecht. Dr. Geoffrey Kahn joined as a full-time research postdoctoral fellow. Our Center team established new benchmarks for our key metrics, including publishing the most peer reviewed manuscripts in our history. The Center received NIMH funding for a brand new T32 postdoctoral training program in mental health services research leveraging our partnership with the NIMH funded Mental Health Research Network. This prestigious award is the first NIH-funded T32 program in the history of Henry Ford Health. Dr. Julia Felton also received two new NIH awards for innovative community-based studies leveraging community health workers. Our team partnered with the departments of internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics and public health sciences to launch the new Primary Care Research Institute (PCRI) which will facilitate opportunities for leading primary care and prevention research. Our team established key relationships with several research departments within the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, including psychiatry, women’s health, pediatrics, and several others, as part of the new Henry Ford Health-Michigan State University Health Sciences Center.

In 2021, we launched a new core focus area in Healthcare Improvement combining our long history of integrated research and collaboration with practice partners to support healthcare quality improvement across Henry Ford Health and our many partners. In addition to our longstanding MSSIC program in partnership with Neurosurgery, we received new funding from Blue Cross Blue Shield in partnership with Henry Ford Health Behavioral Health Services to initiate the MI-MIND collaborative quality initiative supporting implementation of evidence-based suicide prevention practices across provider organizations throughout Michigan. We also received SAMHSA funding to support an innovative new improvement and research effort for trauma-focused care among youth and their families.

CHSR Annual Report

Center staff

The Center for Health Services Research includes staff with training and expertise in health services research, clinical epidemiology, economics, computer science, finance, health education, psychology, sociology and medicine. Center staff also maintains experience and expertise in the use of large administrative and claims databases as well as survey research methods.

CHSR Staff Members

Mission

The Center for Health Policy and Health Services Research seeks to discover the underlying causal relationships that affect the effectiveness and efficiency of health care services. Through excellence in research, we strive to provide the knowledge needed to improve quality of care, maximize the health of populations, and minimize the burden of disease. The Center seeks to conduct research relevant to health policy decisions at the state and national levels, and to be a focal point for the Henry Ford Health's participation in, and influence on, those decisions.

We seek to produce high-quality science as evidenced through our publications. We strive to actively contribution to the direction of health policy by providing objective and incisive analyses that result in sound decisions regarding the provision and financing of care.

Vision

The Center for Health Policy and Health Services Research will be a nationally-recognized source of important, clinically-relevant health services research findings. Its staff will be active participants in the processes that establish health care policy, and it will be a catalyst for our health system's organizational participation in those processes.