Evaluation of the public health achievements made by projects supported by a federal contract mechanism at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USA

Lisa G Ayenew; Mary A Hoelscher; James G Emshoff; Daniel P Kidder; Barbara A Ellis

doi:10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2021.101949

Evaluation of the public health achievements made by projects supported by a federal contract mechanism at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USA

Eval Program Plann. 2021 Oct:88:101949. doi: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2021.101949. Epub 2021 Apr 15.

Authors

Lisa G Ayenew¹, Mary A Hoelscher², James G Emshoff³, Daniel P Kidder⁴, Barbara A Ellis⁵

Affiliations

¹ Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) Fellow, Office of Science, Deputy Director for Public Health Science and Surveillance, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA. Electronic address: mrq7@cdc.gov.
² Influenza Division, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA. Electronic address: mzr1@cdc.gov.
³ EMSTAR Research, Inc., Atlanta, GA 30307, USA. Electronic address: jemshoff@gsu.edu.
⁴ Program Performance and Evaluation Office, Office of the Associate Director for Policy and Strategy, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA. Electronic address: dtk8@cdc.gov.
⁵ Office of Science Quality, Office of Science, Deputy Director for Public Health Science and Surveillance, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333 (retired), USA. Electronic address: bae7@cdc.gov.

PMID: 34029890
DOI: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2021.101949

Abstract

In 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) established the Achieving Public Health Impact through Research (APHIR) contract mechanism. APHIR provides CDC's Centers, Institute, and Offices (CIOs) a mechanism that supports multiyear, high impact public health research. Awarded projects supported research on a wide range of topics (e.g., cancer surveillance, HIV education programs, development of biological assays, and evaluation of traumatic brain injury prevention programs) and achieved diverse outcomes (e.g., contribution to the body of knowledge in their field, changes in practice and health service delivery, and capacity building). This article describes how existing impact frameworks and a variety of methods and tools (key informant interviews, online survey, bibliometric analysis, Altmetric and document reviews) were used to identify the outcomes achieved by awarded projects. The approach discussed in this paper can be used to evaluate projects that involve a diversity of activities and outcomes.

Keywords: Evaluation; Program improvement; Public health; Research impact.

Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Capacity Building*
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.
Humans
Program Evaluation
Public Health*
United States