Dimick, Justin
Summaries of Independent Scientist (K) Awards
Institution: University of Michigan
Grant Title: Composite Measures of Surgical Performance
Grant Number: K08 HS017765
Duration: 4 years (2008-2011)
Total Award: $770,000
Project Description: This research proposes to develop a composite measure of surgical morbidity that overcomes many of the limitations of existing approaches. There are two specific aims:
- Develop and validate composite measures of surgical morbidity.
- Establish the value of incorporating process of care variables into composite measures.
Career Goals: Dr. Dimick is an Assistant Professor in Surgery at Dartmouth Medical School. He received his MD from the Johns Hopkins Medical School and served his residency in General Surgery at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He went on to earn his MPH in epidemiology/biostatistics while positioned as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Dartmouth Medical School. During this grant, Dr. Dimick desires to acquire more advanced methodological skills and apply these skills to ongoing and new research projects. His long-term goal is to ensure that quality measurement efforts are ultimately translated into better outcomes for surgical patients.
Progress to Date: Dr. Dimick's work on developing composite measures based on national Medicare claims data was published in Health Affairs. He has another article which is forthcoming in Health Services Research which demonstrates the value of “reliability adjustment” for filtering out statistical noise when measuring surgical outcomes. The grantee created the final statistical code necessary for applying the composite measure methods to a broad range of surgical procedures. He has done preliminary work with the ACS-NSQIP data.
Future Plans: The grantee will apply the final code to the NSQIP data and finish developing and validating the composite measures as described in Aim #1. He will continue his didactic training and his limited clinical practice.
Highlights and Specific Accomplishments:
- Young Investigator Award, University of Michigan, 2006.
- Lazar Greenfield Clinical Research Award, University of Michigan, 2003.
K-Generated Publications: None thus far.
