Veterans Affairs collaboration renewed with Blake and Twidale

Professor Michael Twidale
Michael Twidale, Professor and PhD Program Director
Catherine Blake
Catherine Blake, Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

After a successful first year, GSLIS faculty members Catherine Blake and Michael Twidale will again serve as advisors to the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Information Resource Center (VIReC), a VA Health Service Research & Development Service (HSR&D) resource center that supports VA researchers in need of information about data resources specific to their research.

This project illustrates the insight that can be gained when partnerships are established between academe and front line information scientists in order to address real information problems faced by researchers and operations staff at the VA. The team is led at the VA by Maria Souden, VIReC associate director for communications.

The team presented the first of their results earlier this month at the 78th Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) Annual Meeting and will be sharing more details about the project in December at the 8th Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation in Health, the theme of which is "Optimizing Personal and Population Health."