Administrative Core

There is extensive evidence of persistent and in some areas worsening disparities in healthcare delivery, quality, and outcomes experienced by minority groups in the U.S. Despite multiple calls to action, the reorienting and restructuring of health systems to rapidly implement and test solutions to address health disparities have yet to be realized. Toward this goal, the Administrative Core (AC) of our Columbia-Cornell- Einstein EQUIP+ Center for Learning Health System (LHS) Science will be tasked with building and overseeing the infrastructure that supports LHS Scientists to develop and conduct innovative PCOR/CER projects at the intersection of health equity and quality. With Columbia University serving as the academic and administrative hub, the EQUIP+ Center brings together three world-class academic institutions in New York City: Columbia University, Weill Cornell Medicine, and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and their large, affiliated healthcare delivery systems serving diverse patient populations. To build a robust LHS infrastructure, the AC will leverage the vast complementary training and research assets of Columbia and its partners. Under the AC’s leadership, the EQUIP+ Center will enhance existing resources and develop new structures to train and support LHS Scientists, including tailored didactics and mentorship, PCOR/CER methodology and implementation science consults, and data science, statistics, and informatics tools and services, within and across partner institutions. With strong, centralized leadership, the AC will coordinate and communicate effectively with all interrelated Cores of the EQUIP+ Center to achieve their specific aims. Importantly, the AC will ensure that the individual training and research needs of a diverse group of LHS Scientists are met. The AC will also engage key stakeholders, representing patients, community, healthcare providers, and institutional leaders at every stage of the LHS project cycle. To accomplish these strategic activities, the AC will pursue the following specific aims: Aim 1–Serve as a centralized hub to provide leadership, oversight, coordination, and communication of all proposed activities of the EQUIP+ Center and across its Cores; Aim 2–Create and coordinate opportunities for effective and meaningful engagement of participants and community and stakeholder partners; Aim 3–Recruit LHS Scientists from across our LHS partners and leverage collaborative relationships to provide training, mentoring, and research opportunities across institutions; and Aim 4–Conduct a rigorous comprehensive program evaluation to continuously improve and demonstrate the value of embedded LHS Scientist training and research. The AC will leverage the EQUIP+ Center’s network of resources to advance the field of LHS Science and develop the next generation of LHS Scientists to improve health equity, quality, and safety.