CCQTP Leaders

Three Program Directors (PIs) share administrative responsibility for the CCQTP: Peggy Leatt, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair, Department of Health Policy and Management, and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Richard M. Goldberg, MD, is Professor and Chief of the UNC Division of Hematology/Oncology, and Director of Clinical Research, Gastrointestinal Oncology Program at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Bryan J. Weiner, Ph.D., is Associate Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.   Peggy Leatt, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair, Department of Health Policy and Management, and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Leatt serves as Co-Director of the NINR-funded Research Training Program in Health Care Quality and Patient Outcomes, housed at the UNC School of Nursing. Previously, Dr. Leatt held the Liberty Health Chair of Health Management Strategies at the University of Toronto. From 1988-98, she served as Chair of the Department of Health Administration, Faculty of Medicine (University of Toronto) and Principal Investigator for the Hospital Management Research Unit funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care. From 1998-2000 Dr. Leatt was on leave from the University as CEO of the Ontario Health Services Restructuring Commission, an independent body created to introduce health reform to all aspects of the health system in the province of Ontario. From 2000-01, she served on the Taskforce for the Reform of the Cancer System. Since 2002, she has been a founding member of the Quality Council for Cancer Care Ontario. Dr. Leatt’s research program focuses on two areas. The first area is the development of systems to improve patient safety and quality of services in a variety of health care settings, including hospitals, primary health care, and long-term care. She recently served as a consultant to an AHRQ-funded project. “Minimizing Errors and Maximizing Outcomes.” The study was unique in its perspective on patient safety in primary health care in Chicago, rural and urban Wisconsin, and New York. The second area of her research concerns the strategic management of organizational systems for cancer prevention and control, using clinical and financial measures of performance. Building on previous experiences in developing performance measures for hospitals in the Province of Ontario, this area of research focuses on the reliability and validity of indicators of quality and outcomes for the Ontario Cancer System.  The research program builds on her involvement as a founding member of the Ontario Cancer Quality Council to develop and use evidence for decision-making. Richard M. Goldberg, MD, is Professor and Chief of the UNC Division of Hematology/Oncology, and Director of Clinical Research, Gastrointestinal Oncology Program at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Goldberg completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the Emory University Affiliated Hospitals in Atlanta and his medical oncology fellowship training at the Vincent Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown University. After spending 10 years at the Geisinger Clinic in Pennsylvania, Dr. Goldberg moved to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN where he directed the GI cancer research program for the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center. He also worked with the Phase I consortium and the North Central Cancer Treatment Group for which he was GI cancer coordinator. He joined the faculty at UNC in 2003. In addition to his administrative responsibilities at UNC-Chapel Hill, Dr. Goldberg serves as Chair of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Committee for the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB). Dr. Goldberg’s research focuses on colorectal cancer, clinical and translational studies, gastrointestinal cancers, development of new cancer drugs and drug combinations, and clinical trials methodology. He has served as the PI for several national and international clinical trials, including intergroup study N9741, an international Phase III study of oxaliplatin, irinotecan and 5-fluorouracil in combinations for first-line treatment of advanced colorectal cancer, new drug combinations tested with the endpoints of time to progression, response rate, survival, and toxicity. This trial has helped change the standard of care for metastatic colorectal cancer in North America. Dr. Goldberg is a recipient of the Mayo Clinic Individual Achievement Award. Bryan J. Weiner, Ph.D., is Associate Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Weiner serves as Director of the Program on Health Care Organization at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research. He also serves as Co-Director of the newly established Dissemination Core of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at UNC, and the Director of the Health Policy/Dissemination Core of the NCI-funded Carolina Community Network to Reduce Cancer Disparities. Dr. Weiner’s research focuses on the adoption, implementation, and sustainability of innovations in health care organizations. He has studied a wide range of innovations including quality improvement practices, patient safety practices, clinical information systems, collaborative service delivery models, and evidence-based diabetes practices. Dr. Weiner served as Principal Investigator for two research studies funded by the Division of Cancer Prevention of the National Cancer Institute. The first study assessed the extent to which clinical cooperative groups have integrated cancer prevention and control research into their scientific agendas, structures, and operations. The study also assessed the extent to which cooperative groups have integrated Community Clinical Oncology Programs (CCOPs) into their scientific and policy-making activities. This study is now complete. The second study identified the organizational and environmental factors associated with high accruals to cancer prevention and control protocols. The study also examines how CCOPs have adapted to changes in their local health care environments, and the impact of these adaptive strategies on cancer prevention and control accrual performance. Dr. Weiner’s research also focuses on quality improvement and patient safety. Building on prior work on the implementation of quality improvement in hospital settings, Dr. Weiner served as a lead investigator on the AHRQ-funded study, “Quality Improvement Structure and Practices as Determinants of Hospital Quality Indicators.” This study examined the relationships between several key dimensions of hospital QI infrastructure and risk adjusted quality indicators. This effort was the first to link large scale data bases containing reliable, valid quality-relevant indicators for a broad range of clinical conditions and procedures, on the one hand, and equally extensive, but detailed data on the organizational strategies, structures, and practices of hospital QI efforts on the other. Content for this page is provided by the Department of Health Policy and Management. Please contact the webmaster with any questions or comments.

Last updated June 18, 2008