Welcome to the Section of Health Services Research
We’re very glad you’re interested in the Section of Health Services Research and the Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness & Safety (IQuESt). Whether you’re a prospective trainee, collaborator, or just exploring our work, we invite you to learn more about our programs and the impact we’re making.
Our mission is, "To improve health and well-being through innovations in health care delivery." IQuESt is organized into four scientific programs: Implementation, Innovation & Evaluation; Behavioral Health; Health Policy, Quality & Informatics; and Clinical Effectiveness & Population Health. These are supported by three cores: Methodology & Analytics, Education & Training, and Administration & Operations.
With 91 faculty and more than 150 staff, IQuESt is a multidisciplinary research community focused on collaboration, scholarship, and real-world impact. In FY2024, our faculty received 18 grants totaling more than $10.5 million. Highlights include NIH and VA awards, a core center grant renewal led by Dr. Laura Petersen, and notable funding from ADA and DoD. Our faculty are recognized for their national leadership: Dr. Hardeep Singh was awarded the Mark L. Graber Diagnostic Quality Award, selected for the WHO’s Steering Committee for World Patient Safety Day 2024, and invited to join the National Quality Forum’s committee on diagnostic excellence. Dr. Bhavika Kaul was honored as a National Academy of Medicine Scholar, and Dr. Darius Dawson was selected as a 2024 Emerging Leader by the Anxiety & Depression Association of America.
Education and professional development are central to our work. IQuESt offers a range of Health Services Research Grand Rounds seminars, including Research in Progress, Visiting Professors, Job Talks, and Workshops. The centerpiece of our education program is the variety of postdoctoral fellowship programs. We have two funded fellowship positions in health systems research for PhD postdoctoral graduates and two for physicians. IQuESt is also home to the Health Professions Education Evaluation and Research (HPEER) and Big-Data Scientist Training Enhancement Program (BD-STEP), which train postdoctoral fellows in advanced evaluation methods and big data. Each fellowship welcomes 1-3 fellows from MD and PhD backgrounds per year. We also have active partnerships with several other T32 VA postdoctoral training programs. At any given time, up to 24 postdoctoral fellows are working at IQuESt and participating in our education program. Postdoctoral fellows are mentored by IQuESt faculty members, with 75% of faculty currently involved in fellow mentoring. Of the 91 IQuESt faculty, more than one-third are former IQuESt fellows. We also provide training for all faculty and staff in leadership and communication skills, such as crucial conversations and insights discovery, designed to help individuals better understand themselves and work more effectively in teams with others.
Faculty continue to earn recognition for their educational impact: Drs. Jessica Davila, Kyler Godwin, Molly Horstman, and Ashley Meyer each received Norton Rose Fulbright Awards. Dr. Davila now serves as Deputy Director of the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, while Dr. Godwin has been named Director of BCM’s Institute for Continuing Professional Development in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety. Dr. Anita Chary recently stepped into the role of Associate Director of the Medical Scientist Training Program at Baylor.
We hope you’ll take a moment to explore our research, connect with our faculty, and consider joining us at an upcoming seminar. There’s always something meaningful happening here.
Thank you for visiting
Laura Petersen, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.P.
Professor of Medicine
Director, Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness & Safety
Chief, Section of Health Services Research
