The WPRN is a collaborative group of primary care practices in the five-state WWAMI region (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho) committed to research and practice improvement. The WPRN’s diversity of geography and practice type allows it to reach many rural and underserved populations.
- ✓ To maintain equal and bi-directional partnerships between academic researchers and community practices
- ✓ To conduct research of importance to practices
- ✓ To make research participation feasible for practices
- ✓ To minimize interference in clinical practice operations
- ✓ To conduct research that supports practice innovation and improves patient outcomes
WPRN members contribute to evidence-based knowledge in primary care by generating project ideas, conducting studies at their own sites, and collaborating on studies across the WPRN. Members may contribute to the development of research questions and protocols.
Members are clinical practices; individual practitioners within a practice may choose whether or not to participate. Representatives from member practices convene annually in Seattle, WA.
- Opportunities to be involved in research and scholarship
- Opportunities to be involved in practice improvement initiatives
- Opportunities for professional development
- Continuing Medical Education credit when possible and appropriate
- Reimbursement for FTE and clinic costs of participating in funded research projects
WPRN Mission:
➢ To improve the health and well-being of patients in their communities, through the conduct of collaborative research that informs and enhances primary care clinical practice.
The WPRN Coordinating Center (CC) and operations are located at the University of Washington, in the Department of Family Medicine, Seattle, WA.
WPRN Director Laura-Mae Baldwin, MD, MPH and the WPRN Steering Committee, composed of CC and member practice representatives, lead the WPRN.
Funding for the WPRN comes from the University of Washington Institute of Translational Health Sciences (ITHS) and Department of Family Medicine (UWFM), and research grants.
- ✓ Improving Safe Medication Prescribing among Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease
- ✓ Cervical Cancer Screening: Are Women Over, Under, or Appropriately Screened?
- ✓ ACE-Is, ARBs, Statins and Contraception
- ✓ Using Electronic Communications to Improve Hypertension in the Community (e-CHIP)
- ✓ LC Data QUEST - an infrastructure for securely sharing electronic medical record data for research.
Contact Gina Keppel, MPH Research Scientist University of Washington (206) 685-0750 gakeppel@uw.edu
