Charles Drew University Center for Health Services Research

The Minority Research Infrastructure Support Program (MRISP) at Charles Drew University has established a Health Services Research Center to enhance the capability of CDU investigators to engage in methodologically rigorous health services research (HSR).

What is Health Services Research?

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) defines health services research as empirical work that “examines how people get access to health care, how much care costs, and what happens to patients as a result of this care.”  Further, AHRQ states that “the main goals of health services research are to identify the most effective ways to organize, manage, finance, and deliver high quality care; reduce medical errors; and improve patient safety.”

The Charles Drew University Health Services Research Center focuses on access, quality, safety, cost, clinical effectiveness, and organization of care relative to vulnerable populations, underserved communities, and safety net systems.

The Charles Drew University Center for Health Services Research (HSR) seeks to enhance the capability of CDU investigators to engage in methodologically rigorous health services research, facilitate manuscript submission to HSR journals, develop competitive HSR proposals for ARHQ submission, and establish a nationally-recognized HSR center. The overarching theme for research performed under the auspices of this program is the elimination of health disparities in minority, socioeconomically disadvantaged, and other vulnerable populations identified by AHRQ as “priority populations.” Our efforts will emphasize research related to inner city settings that are particularly relevant to delivery of care and to the health related outcomes of care in vulnerable populations, including inner city communities, low income groups, minority groups, the elderly, and individuals with special healthcare needs. Delivery systems of special importance include safety net environments such as public hospitals and community health centers.

Selected Areas of Expertise in the Charles Drew Center for Health Services Research
Faculty and Staff	Discipline	Methods	Examples of Applications
Deyu Pan, MS deyupan@cdrewu.edu	Biostatistics	Frequentist & Bayesian analyses Nonparametric statistics	Bivariate & multivariate hypothesis testing Sample size calculation
Magda A. Shaheen, MD, PhD magdashaheen@cdrewu.edu	Epidemiology	Study design (cohort, case control, cross-sectional, experimental designs, etc)	Rapid community-based surveys Health impact & risk assessment
Paul L. Robinson, PhD paulrobinson@cdrewu.edu	Geographic & Spatial Analysis	Geographic data mapping Spatial statistics	Health-related asset mapping Social network analysis
Jose L. Calderon, MD drcalderon@sbcglobal.net Kevin C. Heslin, PhD kevinheslin@cdrewu.edu	Health Services Research	Econometrics Health outcomes & utility assessment Readability assessment	Quality assessment Cost-effectiveness analysis Cultural and linguistic adaptation
Sheba M. George, PhD shebaghome@aol.com	Sociology [qualitative]	Ethnography Grounded theory	Community-based participatory approaches Action research
Mohsen Bazargan, PhD mohsenbazargan@cdrewu.edu	Sociology [quantitative]	Psychometric analysis Structural equation modeling	Health promotion & risk reduction

This website is supported in part by AHRQ M-RISP grant #HS014022-01A1