Division of Quality Health Care
About the Division chair | About the division | Contact information
Faculty members | Research areas | Fellowship training program
Other points of interest
About the Division chair
Wally Smith, M.D.
Dr. Smith is professor and head of the first division in the nation in an academic department of internal medicine focused primarily on researching health care quality. Dr. Smith was an inaugural Robert Wood Johnson Generalist Physician Faculty Scholar. He has been on the editorial boards of the journals Medical Decision Making and Clinical Performance and Quality Health Care. He is the North American editor of Clinical Governance, an International Journal, and a deputy editor of the Journal of General Internal Medicine. He has served on study sections for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, National Library of Medicine, and the Health Resources and Services Administration. He is past president of the Southern Society of General Internal Medicine. He has authored 40 peer-reviewed publications and 35 externally funded grants or contracts.
About the Division of Quality Health Care
The mission of the Division of Quality Health Care is to study, teach and improve individual, corporate and community health services delivery by applying the disciplines of classical and clinical epidemiology, the decision sciences, industrial management science, informatics and the biomedical sciences. Founded in 1996, the goal of the Division of Quality Health Care is to integrate hospital epidemiology and quality assurance service activities with research focused in the areas of clinical performance outcomes. For more information, visit the Division of Quality Health Care Web site.
Contact information
Division chair
Wally R. Smith, M.D.
P.O. Box 980306
Richmond, Virginia 23298-0306
Phone: (804) 828-6938
E-mail: wrsmith@vcu.edu
Administrator
Shannon Sekerak
P.O. Box 980306
Richmond, Virginia 23298-0306
Phone: (804) 828-6938
E-mail: ssekerak@vcu.edu
Faculty members
The division consists of a multidisciplinary faculty capable of comprehensive studies of quality. Already, the division has won national acclaim and funding, and it has addressed public policy issues regarding quality.
Research areas
Research or past research projects focus(ed) on methodology of quality measurement and improvement, clinical epidemiology, cancer epidemiology and prevention, sickle cell disease, obesity reduction, violence, reduction of health disparities, medical decision making, changing physician behavior, epidemiology and prevention of nosocomial infections, and evaluation of programs to enhance community access to care.
Fellowship training programs
Since 1997, a federally funded National Research Service Award has been operational, training general internists, family practitioners, and pediatricians for leadership careers in academia, industry, government, or health care management.
An active training program in hospital epidemiology also has been established. Most fellows in this program have completed training in infectious diseases or medical microbiology although this is not required. Fellows in both programs are required to do original research, and are trained in study design; critical analysis of the medical literature; and the design, implementation and analysis of clinical trials. Fellows also participate in the clinical and administrative activities of the units within the division, such as clinics or the infection control program. See more details at the General Internal Medicine Fellowship Training Program.
2008/02/29
Division of Quality Health Care Web site