Seven Year Update from CoHSTAR Principal Investigator Linda Resnik PT, PhD, FAPTA

The Center on Health Services Training and Research (CoHSTAR) Principal Investigator, Linda Resnik, PT, PhD, FAPTA, provides an update on several health services research initiatives.

The Foundation for Physical Therapy Research’s (FPTR) longest, ongoing research grant is now in its 7^th year of annual funding. The Center on Health Services Training and Research (CoHSTAR) was established in 2015 with an initial FPTR grant of $2.5 million. Due to CoHSTAR’s ongoing success, FPTR increased funding, first in 2019 and again in 2020, not only doubling the scope of the grant but also investing an additional $1.25 million in funding.

CoHSTAR continues to advance the field of physical therapy health services research (HSR). To date, CoHSTAR has funded 15 Pilot Studies, 15 Faculty Fellows, Four Postdoctoral Fellows, and four Visiting Scientists. In addition, CoHSTAR has successfully held six HSR Institutes with five accompanying HSR workshops. This ongoing commitment to advancing health services and health policy research in physical therapy resulted in 211 peer-reviewed publications, 208 research abstracts, and 35 invited presentations!

One of CoHSTAR’s initial goals was to develop and build an HSR infrastructure that would lead to external funding and collaborations. CoHSTAR-funded researchers have since gone on to receive funding from several larger organizations, including three Research Career Development (K) Awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and 13 small grants and loan repayment awards.

It’s largest award to-date — a 5-year, $5.5 million NIH grant — went to CoHSTAR’s PI, Dr. Resnik, to create the Learning Health Systems Rehabilitation Research Network (LeaRRn), a national resource network to advance stakeholder-partnered, rehabilitation learning health systems (LHS) research to improve quality of care, demonstrate value, and enhance patient and system outcomes.

“Thanks to your commitment, CoHSTAR was established to train physical therapist scientists and support research studies that provide data to better inform decisions about payment policy and enable practitioners to make better healthcare decisions affecting their patients,” said Resnik. “Ultimately, your support is helping us demonstrate the value of the profession.”

Funding for CoHSTAR was made possible with a $1 million gift from the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), gifts from APTA components, and donations from physical therapists, foundations, and corporations with a shared passion for the field of physical therapy.