On behalf of the investigators and staff of the Northwest  Center for Outcomes Research in Older Adults, I would like to welcome you to our homepage. We are a national Center of Excellence for the VA Health Services Research and Development Service (HSR&D). The Center maintains strong links with supporting community institutions, including the University of Washington and Group Health Cooperative. Our goals include:

  Management of chronic disease in primary and specialty care      
  Preservation of independence in older adults
  Evaluation of alternative delivery systems
  Basic methodology in health services research

The Center is comprised of 17 core, and 19 affiliate investigators who are supported by approximately 90 research and administrative staff. Funding to the Center has averaged nearly 10 million dollars annually for the past several years, including competitive research grants from the Department of Veterans Affairs and other federal sources as well as foundations and private industry. There are typically 100 active research projects ongoing at the Center and Investigators typically publish well in excess of 100 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals each year plus an equivalent number of editorials, books, book chapters and other publications. Over more than two decades, the Center has trained over 200 physician and PhD postdoctoral/predoctoral trainees in health services research.

I hope that you will take the time to explore this site further and learn more about the exciting research being done by investigators at the Northwest Center.

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any comments or suggestions.


Stephan D. Fihn, MD MPH
Director, Northwest HSR&D Center of Excellence
VA Puget Sound Health Care System