VA-DoD collaboration guidebook now available

Partnering with military—VA and Defense researchers aim to increase collaborative projects to help both Veterans and active-duty personnel, such as these 101st Airborne troops. (Photo by Spc. Scott Davis)

Veterans Affairs and Defense researchers have produced a new 56-page guidebook to spur more collaboration between the agencies on clinical health research. The attractively designed VA/DoD Collaboration Guidebook for Healthcare Research, online at www.research.va.gov/va-dod, is filled with practical tips and information for researchers. It covers topics such as identifying collaborators, submitting research proposals, and understanding the rules for data security and human-subjects protection in each agency.

The guidebook is a key step in ongoing efforts over the past two decades to increase VA-DoD collaboration, particularly in health care. Other initiatives have focused, for example, on sharing electronic medical records or building joint health care facilities.

To date, researchers from VA and DoD have also worked together on studies focused on issues such as posttraumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, burn injuries, amputation and prosthetics, sensory loss, and infectious disease. One prominent example of a joint effort is the high-tech DEKA prosthetic arm, developed through funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and now being field tested with Veterans at several VA sites.

The new guidebook, funded by VA's Health Services Research and Development Service, was created by six lead authors from VA and DoD and more than a dozen advisors and reviewers representing the two agencies.

Among the topics covered:

• Techniques for finding collaborators with common research interests and goals
• Administrative and funding mechanisms in VA and DoD
• Types of formal agreements for collaborative projects
• Suggestions for developing and submitting proposals
• Examples of successful—and unsuccessful—research collaborations

The guidebook also contains links to additional resources, and a comprehensive list—seven pages' worth—of acronyms commonly used by researchers in both agencies, ranging from AAHRPP (Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection) to WRIISC (War Related Illness and Injury Study Center).

According to lead author Linda Resnik, PhD, PT, a research scientist at the Providence VA Medical Center and associate professor at Brown University, "The guidebook is a living document that will need periodic updating so that it contains the most current and relevant content." She says feedback and suggestions can be sent to vhaprovadodguidebooks@va.gov.