Outcome Metrics and Clinical Practice Guidelines Postgraduate Internship

The Extremity Trauma and Amputation Center of Excellence (EACE) is offering a postgraduate opportunity in Falls Church, Virginia.

EACE is the leading advocate for research and treatment of Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) patients with extremity trauma and amputation. Working with TRICARE, the Military Health System, VA and other Centers of Excellence, the EACE will lead efforts to enhance collaboration between the DoD and the VA extremity trauma and amputation care providers and conduct scientific research to minimize the effects of traumatic injuries and improve clinical outcomes. This clinical data project is essential to overarching DOD amputation care CPG adoption, and ultimately programmatic evaluation.

Under the guidance of a mentor, you will engage in activities and research in several areas including: utilizing outcomes metrics, which are strongly recommended in the DOD and Veterans Affairs CPGs, to provide supporting documentation for DOD to achieve national certification in amputation care. This clinical data project is essential to overarching DOD amputation care CPG adoption, and ultimately programmatic evaluation; supporting the development, design and implementation of an outcome metric database, to include identifying reliable and valid outcome metric tools, collaborating with clinicians for consensus, supporting pragmatic clinical implementation, performing follow on assessment of the implementation, and assessing outcome metric capability; interfacing with the Defense Health Agency (DHA) Patient Survey Portal (PSP) staff on software development, graphic user interface, and the completeness, accuracy and functionality of each outcome metric as it is incorporated into the database; collaborating with clinicians from multiple disciplines to develop customized graphic user interfaces to display outcomes data to enhance clinical decision making; collaborating with clinicians and clinical leadership to determine information requirements for performance improvement, and; supporting the PSP staff with the design and implementation of reports required at multiple levels of leadership (clinic, facility, enterprise).   Additional learning experiences may include: gain a minimal understanding of quality standards for the DoD in internal and vendor generated software; provide support in identifying basic performance and minimal acceptance requirements; participate in application testing to ensure continued performance from periodic updates; evaluate user system and application needs; evaluate alternative solutions and approaches to meeting needs, and seek the optimal technology solution; participate in report submission; engage in the development/prototyping of quality assurance checks.

This appointment is a 12-month research appointment. Appointments may be extended depending on funding availability, project assignment, program rules, and availability of the participant.

You will receive a stipend to be determined by EACE. Stipends are typically based on a participant’s academic standing, discipline, experience, and research facility location.

Other benefits may include the following:

The Extremity Trauma & Amputation Center of Excellence (EACE) is a unique organization within the DoD consisting of teams of researchers embedded at the point of care within multiple Military Treatment Facilities across the nation. In line with the congressionally directed mission of the EACE, the research efforts undertaken focus on the mitigation, treatment and rehabilitation of traumatic extremity injuries and amputations with a specific focus on translating their findings into clinical practice to improve the care of injured Service Members and Veterans. To learn more, visit: https://www.health.mil/About-MHS/OASDHA/HSPO/EACE.

This program, administered by Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) through its contract with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to manage the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), was established through an interagency agreement between DOE and DoD. Participants do not enter into an employee/employer relationship with ORISE, ORAU, DoD or any other office or agency. Instead, you will be affiliated with ORISE for the administration of the appointment through the ORISE appointment letter and Terms of Appointment. Proof of health insurance is required for participation in this program. Health insurance can be obtained through ORISE. For more information, visit the ORISE Research Participation Program at the U.S. Department of Defense.

Applicant should have completed a Bachelor's, Master's or Doctoral degree in related field, or expects to have completed by January 31, 2022. Degree must have been received within five years of the appointment start date. U.S. military veterans who have been honorably discharged (or who have been medically discharged because of a service-connected disability) and who received their degree within ten years of the desired start date are also eligible.