CRIISP's research focus is on improving health care quality for patients with chronic illnesses. Rosenthal said the center arose partly from research indicating that patients with chronic illness may not receive recommended care up to 50 percent of the time.

"CRIISP is a specialized research center that's devoted to conducting research that seeks to implement what we know is effective in health care on a much broader basis and ensure that patients actually benefit from what we know works in health care," said Rosenthal, who is also a professor of internal medicine and health management policy in the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.

"We currently have, for example, several studies that are looking at how we can improve the management of patients with hypertension," he said. "We have research in other areas, such as diabetes, that's trying to do the same thing in terms of making sure the patients get therapies that have been shown in clinical trials to decrease mortality and improve their quality of life."

The center brings together experts in behavioral psychology, health care organization, collaborative management, health care economics, biostatistics, clinical medicine and nursing. Rosenthal said the researchers would work together to "solve a lot of the complex barriers to delivering high quality health care."

Rosenthal said CRIISP received a $3.6 million, five-year award in 2004 from the Department of Veterans Affairs to support the center. Additionally, he said the center also received several other newer grants to support individual research projects as well as several career development grants to support the work of junior investigators in CRIISP.

The CRIISP will occupy about 7,500-square feet at the VA, but it also includes space used by collaborating investigators from several UI departments, Rosenthal said.

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