PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Pomernacki, Alyssa
AU  - Carney, Diane V.
AU  - Kimerling, Rachel
AU  - Nazarian, Deborah
AU  - Blakeney, Jill
AU  - Martin, Brittany D.
AU  - Strehlow, Holly
AU  - Yosef, Julia
AU  - Goldstein, Karen M.
AU  - Sadler, Anne G.
AU  - Bean-Mayberry, Bevanne A.
AU  - Bastian, Lori A.
AU  - Bucossi, Meggan M.
AU  - McLean, Caitlin
AU  - Sonnicksen, Shannan
AU  - Klap, Ruth
AU  - Yano, Elizabeth M.
AU  - Frayne, Susan M.
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.