Physician Scientist Matt Bair, MD, MS is Assistant Professor of Medicine and Geriatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine.  His specific program of research is in Improving Pain Management in Primary Care, which he received a VA Career Development Award in 2005 to pursue.  He recently followed that up with winning a VA Rehabilitation Research and Development Service grant to lead the first intervention for chronic pain treatment in Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom veterans.  Dr. Bair is co-Investigator for an NIMH-funded clinical trial to evaluate medication management and pain self-management techniques for people with comorbid pain and depression.

Dr. Bair completed residency training in Internal Medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, followed by fellowship training in health services research at the Regenstrief Institute.  He then completed a one-year VA fellowship in Medical Informatics at the Roudebush VA Medical Center.  Dr. Bair is a member of the National VA Pain Management Coordinating Committee.

Dawn Bravata, MD is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine and an investigator in the VA HSR&D Center on Implementing Evidence-based Practice (CIEBP).  She is the Clinical Coordinator of the VA HSR&D Stroke Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI). 

Dr. Bravata conducts health services research in cerebrovascular disease.  The fundamental goal of her research is to improve the quality of care for patients with cerebrovascular disease.  She is interested in three topics within this larger domain:  the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions for patients with acute ischemic stroke and transient ischemic attack (TIA), the quality of care received by patients with stroke and TIA, and the identification and treatment of medical co-morbidities in patients with cerebrovascular disease.

Dr. Bravata received a VA Health Services Research & Development (HSR&D) Advanced Career Development Award for her current work entitled “The Quality Evaluation in Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack (QUEST) Project” which evaluates the quality of care received by veterans and non-veterans with a stroke or TIA.  She received the Robert Wood Johnson Generalist Physician Faculty Scholars Program Award for her research entitled: “The Diagnosis and Treatment of Sleep-Disordered Breathing in the Home of Patients with Transient Ischemic Attack.”

Caroline Carney Doebbeling, MD, MSc is board certified in Internal Medicine, Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine and has had fellowship training in psychiatric epidemiology. She formerly directed the Medicine-Psychiatry Program at the University of Iowa College of Medicine. At Indiana University, she is active in cancer health services as a researcher, clinician, and as director of the IU Cancer Center Complete Life Program. The program focuses on psychosocial oncology services that integrate mental health and oncology care.

Dr. Carney Doebbeling is an accomplished researcher, with current or past funding from the National Institute of Mental Health, the American Cancer Society, Eli Lilly, and NARSAD. Her areas of research interest include psychiatric health services and epidemiology; cancer and psychiatric care for veterans; the delivery of medical services to persons with mental illness, and developing IT tools for quality care. She is highly sought after for her expertise in mental health services delivery, and currently serves on behavioral health committees for Indiana Medicaid, as well as national grant review panels. She recently co-authored an Indiana House bill ensuring parity for mental health medications for Medicaid enrollees.

She is the Behavioral Health Consultant to Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of Iowa and South Dakota. She is a fellow in the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine, the immediate past president of the Association of Medicine and Psychiatry, and has won numerous awards including the University of Iowa’s College of Public Health Outstanding Young alumnus, and the IU Cancer Center Torchbearer Award.

Research psychologist Teresa M. Damush, PhD, is Research Scientist with IUCHSOR and the VA Health Services Research and Development (HSR&D) Center of Excellence in Implementing Evidence-Based Practice (CIEBP). She is also Center Scientist with the Indiana University Center for Aging Research and the Regenstrief Institute, Inc., and Assistant Research Scientist in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics of Indiana University School of Medicine.

Dr. Damush earned her doctorate in Social and Personality Psychology at UC Riverside. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Health Policy at UC San Francisco. Her research focuses on the development and implementation of chronic disease management interventions in primary and specialty care, specifically the translation of guidelines into practice and the evaluation of implementation strategies to change practice. Dr. Damush serves as the Implementation Research Coordinator for the VA Stroke QUERI, dedicated to translating the latest research in stroke care into evidence-based practice. She is PI of a newly-funded VA HSR&D study to develop systematic measures for secondary stroke prevention in the VA.