Bruce Barrett, MD, PhD, Professor
My focus is on mind-body training that will allow people to improve their health, reduce costs for healthcare, and lessen effects on the environment.
Future projects where students, residents or fellows could engage on projects:
- seeking to leverage mindfulness practices to increase exercise and improve diet while lowering carbon footprint
- developing the foundations of “behavioral eco-wellness” defined as “the study of how individual choices, behaviors, and habits impact both personal health and environmental sustainability”
Randy Brown, MD, PhD, FASAM, Professor
My work focuses on services addressing prevention and treatment of substance misuse and related complications outside of specialty substance abuse treatment settings. That is, my work is applicable to primary care, hospitals, the criminal justice system, and the general community (e.g., needle exchange programs, availability of naloxone for first responders, etc.). There is at least a 30% lifetime prevalence of risky or problem substance use, making it a significant public health threat.
Current projects where students, residents or fellows could engage:
- Analyzing survey data from multiple projects, both for primary and secondary outcomes
- Develop new survey questions arising from already-gathered data
- Mining existing data for new hypothesis generation
Rachel Grob, MA, PhD, Senior Scientist
My work focuses on understanding the diversity of patient experiences. We need to elicit, synthesize, and amplify patient voices in order to assure our prevention and care systems are organized around what patients actually need.
Current projects where students, residents or fellows could engage:
- Performing secondary data analysis
- Disseminating the resource
- Assisting with the design of potential clinical and quality improvement interventions
- Pilot work for developing the next module
Mary Henningfield, PhD, Associate Director
As the Associate Director of the Wisconsin Research & Education Network (WREN), I work on a broad range of practice-based primary care research projects. WREN collaborates with investigators who connect with us for our expertise in practice-based research. Our work supports clinicians throughout Wisconsin to generate and implement research projects relevant to primary care. My interests include shared-decision making in clinical practice, health literacy, development of patient and physician education materials, pain management, and health care disparities.
Marlon Mundt, PhD, Associate Professor
I search for new ways to raise the quality of care for primary care patients. The continuous theme that carries throughout my research is that communication and relationships among clinicians matter for the delivery of high-value cost-effective care. More socially interconnected and less hierarchically organized primary care teams provide better quality of care at lower medical costs.
Current projects where students, residents or fellows could engage:
- Performing secondary data analysis for new hypothesis generation
- Conducting literature reviews in preparation for grant proposals
Andrew Quanbeck, PhD, Assistant Professor
My research draws on systems engineering concepts to develop innovative approaches to transfer what we know about how best to perform clinical care into viable ways to do it.
Current projects where students, residents or fellows could engage:
- Performing literature reviews in preparation for major grant proposals
- Performing secondary data analysis for new hypothesis generation
Edmond Ramly, PhD, MS, Assistant Professor
My research draws on human factors and systems engineering to put best practices for prevention and care into normal practice in ways that fit into the experiences and needs of clinicians, staff, and patients. My current work includes cardiovascular disease prevention and the consequences of telehealth expansion on evidence-based care.
Projects where students, residents, or fellows could engage:
- Conducting literature reviews in preparation for grant proposals or article manuscripts
- Performing secondary analysis of quantitative or qualitative data
- Collecting new qualitative data via virtual interviews or focus groups
- Assisting with stakeholder engagement and participatory design of organizational interventions
- Assisting with in-person administration of a patient survey on telehealth experiences and attitudes
Sarina Schrager, MD, WREN Medical Director
As the Medical Director of the Wisconsin Research & Education Network (WREN), I use my 25 years of experience as a family physician and educator to help develop and implement practice-based research projects in primary care practices across Wisconsin. I help researchers ask pragmatic questions pertinent to patients and clinicians in primary care settings. I listen closely to primary care clinicians and managers so that research activities will improve effectiveness of care and efficiency of workflows. I support the highly skilled WREN staff with my perspective as a clinician on challenges they encounter in implementing research protocols.
Paul Smith, MD, Professor (CHS)
My studies focus on effective communication between physicians and patients and their caregivers. Better communication among these individuals has been shown to improve outcomes and lower costs.
Current projects where students, residents or fellows could engage:
- Validation of caregiver survey questions and associated manuscript preparation
Jon Temte, MD, PhD, Professor (CHS)
My work centers on novel approaches for infectious disease (predominantly influenza) detection in schools, long-term care facilities, clinics, and other sites where infections can quickly surge. By constantly monitoring patterns of illness and disseminating up-to-date data on disease prevalence, we provide clinic teams necessary tools for situational awareness, allowing them to make the best possible clinical choices for their patients.