VA Cooperative Studies Program (CSP)

CSP Central Office - Washington, D.C.

 

CSP Central Office is located in Washington, D.C. All CSP activities are managed, coordinated, and funded in this office and operate under the leadership of the Chief Research & Development Officer.

When 10,000 Veterans suffered from tuberculosis in the 1940s, researchers enrolled them in VA studies to evaluate drugs for treating the disease. This effort was considered the first VA Cooperative Study and led to the development of the Cooperative Studies Program (CSP). CSP was organized into its present form by James A. Hagans, MD, PhD. in 1972. By enabling biostatistical and data management expertise and a clinical research pharmacy to be integrated with investigator-initiated ideas, a unique framework for conducting multi-site clinical trials in VA was instituted. CSP has since grown into a major clinical research activity that encourages and supports VA investigators in conducting clinical research and collecting data across multiple research facilities.

Today, CSP provides definitive research findings that have a direct impact on the clinical care given to our Veterans and the nation. Headquartered in downtown Washington, D.C., near the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' Central Office, CSP links VA investigators to an extensive network of professional biostatisticians, health economists, pharmacists, programmers, and administrators. Along with its epidemiology centers, CSP serves as a foundation for all clinical research efforts supported by the Clinical Sciences Research & Development Service of the Veterans Health Administration's Office of Research and Development. Additionally, CSP established several collaborations with other federal, international, university, and private industry partners. These activities are centrally directed, managed, and supported by CSP Central Office under the leadership of the Chief Research & Development Officer.

 
Grant D. Huang, MPH, PhD, Deputy Chief Research & Development Officer - Enterprise Optimization
Director, Cooperative Studies Program (CSP)

Dr. Huang helps lead an enterprise-focused research strategy for planning, integrating and coordinating VA resources to enhance evidence-based care for Veterans. This enterprise includes field-based research programs at over 100 VA medical centers where pre-clinical, clinical, health services, informatics and genomics research are conducted. Additionally, he provides leadership for the Cooperative Studies Program (CSP), a clinical research infrastructure supported by ORD that specializes in the design and conduct of multi-site clinical trials and large-scale observational studies. Altogether, Dr. Huang helps establish transformative research partnerships with VA, federal and industry collaborators to enable innovative scientific opportunities for VA investigators and Veterans.

During his VA tenure, Dr. Huang has been part of the design and conduct of over 100 multi-site national and international clinical studies, establishment of the Million Veteran Program, and implementation of quality standards, including those for International Organization of Standards 9001 registration. He has authorships in over 125 publications covering clinical, health services and rehabilitation topics in various scientific journals including the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association. These publications have addressed findings across a range of diseases and conditions, research methodologies and innovations and research policy.

Dr. Huang is the Director for the Cooperative Studies Program (CSP), a division within the Department of Veterans Affairs' Office of Research & Development that specializes in the design and conduct of multi-site clinical trials and large-scale epidemiological studies. His responsibilities include managing a network of 10 research centers with expertise in biostatistics, epidemiology, pharmaceutical/device management, regulatory affairs, health economics, and genetics and a research portfolio with approximately 35 active clinical research protocols. He has been involved with designing and/or overseeing 75 national and international studies, several of which have been published in top-tier medical journals including the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association. In addition to clinical and comparative effectiveness research, his current interests include organizational performance and quality management.

Dr. Huang received his education and training from the University of California, Berkeley, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, and Cornell University. His background is in biostatistics/epidemiology and behavioral medicine/medical psychology with a particular emphasis in musculoskeletal disorders, biomechanical and psychological stress, and work organization. More recently, his interests focus on organizational performance, quality management and improving clinical trials recruitment. He has also served on various committees including ones with the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative, Association for Clinical Research Professionals, Office of Science and Technology Policy and National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine.

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