Framework For A Vha Population Health Program: Bmi Trajectory Project

• PIs:                   Hadi Kharrazi, M.D. Ph.D., Jonathan Weiner, Dr.P.H.
• Funders:          Veterans Health Administration
• Status:              Ongoing

This project will utilize a variety of data sources including the Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) Corporate Data Warehouse (CDW) to: (1) develop a metadata repository for obesity (scalable to other population-wide conditions); (2) analyze the effect of different population denominators on existing obesity rates among VHA members; and (3) develop a series of predictive models to forecast the obesity trajectory in a given population denominator which could be eventually tailored as feedback to clinicians, policy makers and others.

Overall the most innovative outcome of this project is the creation of VHA’s GIS-clustered Population-based Risk Prediction Modeling (GIS-PRPM) for obesity. Indeed, the innovative VHA’s Obesity Trajectory Population-based Risk Prediction Model (VOT-PRPM) will be of great value to the science of population health informatics as well as obesity, population management, and case-mix risk adjustment. It will generate a series of risk prediction models to forecast obesity trajectory for a given patient and/or a larger population over a defined period of time. The outputs of VOT-PRPM can be used in various levels of care from a clinical point-of-care to a larger strategic planning for the VHA’s population health activities.