Seed Grants

Program Description

The Southern California Healthcare Delivery Science Center (SC HDS Center) is interested in supporting the design, implementation, and evaluation of innovations in care delivery at Keck Medicine of USC, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (LAC DHS), and other health systems. We intend to support scientific endeavors that advance our understanding of healthcare delivery innovations and their impact on patients, practitioners, and healthcare systems. This solicitation requests letters of intent for grants that would catalyze new projects or supplement existing projects related to these themes in care delivery:

• • • Access to care
      • Inpatient flow
      • Outpatient access (primary, specialty care)
      • Transitions in care
      • Emergency Department cycle time
    • Reduce unnecessary and potentially harmful diagnostic studies and treatment
    • Publicly reported metrics
      • QIP and leapfrog

Innovations typically take the form of system-wide changes to workflows and new standards of patient care and should be feasible and sustainable.

Priority will be given to projects that advance healthcare delivery innovations in areas that are designated by DHS as high priority. To ensure the project is aligned with DHS priorities and operations, the proposed research team must include DHS operational leader/s.

Grant Amount

Applications may request up to $30,000 for up to 2 years. Annual progress reports will be required. Letters of Intent should include an estimated budget total and timeline.

Eligibility

Individuals with a full-time faculty appointment in any department or school/division of USC are eligible to apply as Principal Investigator. Co-investigators should include DHS personnel. Diverse teams (e.g., interdisciplinary and involving junior and senior investigators) and multisite collaboration (e.g., with several DHS sites or universities) are encouraged.

Steps Prior to Application Submission

1. 1. 1. Prior to submitting a Letter of Intent: Shape your idea with Center Director Dr. Amytis Towfighi: Request a consultation.
      2. Submit Letter of Intent (below).
      3. If invited to submit a full application,
         • Complete the online Introduction to Healthcare Delivery Science course (more information) and incorporate Healthcare Delivery Science principles into their projects. Complete this form for access to the course: access the course. 
         • You will receive an invitation link to submit the full application within 3 weeks of Letter of Intent submission.
      4. Full application must be submitted within 8 weeks of invitation.

Letter of Intent Format

Submit Letters of Intent by completing the following fields in the application portal (linked below).

• • • Project Title
    • Principal Investigator(s)
    • Research Plan
      • BACKGROUND [1,000 characters with spaces]: Describe the challenge in DHS healthcare that you propose to address. Describe how the proposed research contributes to DHS delivery system goals, and its potential for/relevance to large‐scale implementation within DHS and dissemination of findings more broadly. Specify whether the seed grant would begin a new project or expand on an existing project.
      • INNOVATION [1,000 characters with spaces]: Describe the intervention or program to be developed or studied. Also describe how the project will align with DHS infrastructure and operations, for example by explaining current operations and how the proposed project would fit in. Also state the DHS primary and specialty care working groups to be engaged in the project and a listing of study sites.
      • APPROACH [1,000 characters with spaces]: Briefly describe the scientific approach including design, primary and secondary outcomes, and analytic methods.
      • IMPACT [1,000 characters with spaces]: Describe the expected impact of the project on access to care, quality of care, efficiency of care, patient‐centeredness of care and/or patient health outcomes.
    • Project Team [1,000 characters with spaces]
      • Provide the names and project‐relevant expertise of the PI and co‐investigators, and what they will contribute to the project.
    • References
    • Budget
      • List the project expense categories (personnel, supplies, consultations, travel) as well as overall budget estimate. We encourage leveraging existing DHS staff, rather than using study funds to hire staff, as the latter is less likely to be sustainable. For this reason, it is critical to work in partnership with DHS to determine if existing staff can be involved. Co-funding is encouraged but not required. Applicants should describe any specific USC and/or DHS funds that this grant will leverage. CTSI faculty members who receive salary support from the SC CTSI should not request any additional salary support in the budget. No indirect costs are allowed.

Submission

Deadline for submission: February 26, 2024

Applications may be submitted through this website: Seed Grant Application. Questions about the submission process can be addressed to hds@usc.edu.