PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Alyssa Pomernacki
AU  - Diane V. Carney
AU  - Rachel Kimerling
AU  - Deborah Nazarian
AU  - Jill Blakeney
AU  - Brittany D. Martin
AU  - Holly Strehlow
AU  - Julia Yosef
AU  - Karen M. Goldstein
AU  - Anne G. Sadler
AU  - Bevanne A. Bean-Mayberry
AU  - Lori A. Bastian
AU  - Meggan M. Bucossi
AU  - Caitlin McLean
AU  - Shannan Sonnicksen
AU  - Ruth Klap
AU  - Elizabeth M. Yano
AU  - Susan M. Frayne
TI  - Lessons from Initiating the First Veterans Health Administration (VA) Women's Health Practice-based Research Network (WH-PBRN) Study
AID  - 10.3122/jabfm.2015.05.150029
DP  - 2015 Sep 01
TA  - The Journal of the American Board of Family
                Medicine
PG  - 649--657
VI  - 28
IP  - 5
4099  - http://www.jabfm.org/content/28/5/649.short
4100  - http://www.jabfm.org/content/28/5/649.full
SO  - J Am Board Fam Med2015 Sep 01; 28
AB  - Background: The Veterans Health Administration (VA) Women's Health Practice-Based Research Network (WH-PBRN) was created to foster innovations for the health care of women veterans. The inaugural study by the WH-PBRN was designed to identify women veterans' own priorities and preferences for mental health services and to inform refinements to WH-PBRN operational procedures. Addressing the latter, this article reports lessons learned from the inaugural study.Methods: WH-PBRN site coordinators at the 4 participating sites convened weekly with the study coordinator and the WH-PBRN program manager to address logistical issues and identify lessons learned. Findings were categorized into a matrix of challenges and facilitators related to key study elements.Results: Challenges to the conduct of PBRN-based research included tracking of regulatory documents; cross-site variability in some regulatory processes; and troubleshooting logistics of clinic-based recruitment. Facilitators included a central institutional review board, strong relationships between WH-PBRN research teams and women's health clinic teams, and the perception that women want to help other women veterans.Conclusion: Our experience with the inaugural WH-PBRN study demonstrated the feasibility of establishing productive relationships between local clinicians and researchers, and of recruiting a special population (women veterans) in diverse sites within an integrated health care system. This identified strengths of a PBRN approach.