Medical College of Wisconsin Forms Center

To better reflect an expanded focus on health services research, emphasis on population science and global health, enhanced recruitment of new faculty and collaborators, and desire to improve engagement with community partners, the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) is renaming and relaunching its Center for Patient Care and Outcomes Research (PCOR) as the Center for Advancing Population Science (CAPS).

“This expanded focus will facilitate partnerships between CAPS researchers within MCW and with MCW's collaborators and better support MCW’s efforts to create tangible change in our communities,” said Dr. Joseph E. Kerschner, MD, dean of the School of Medicine, provost and executive vice president of MCW, “This new focus of the center positions CAPS to become a global leader in healthcare transformation.”

CAPS will carry on the same mission PCOR has held since its establishment in 2001: to develop, test and implement innovative strategies for transforming healthcare that optimizes quality, value and cost, through research, analysis, implementation and impact. In alignment with MCW’s research and community engagement missions, CAPS aims to cultivate knowledge on how access to care, quality and cost of care and the social determinants of health intersect to create disparities and influence the overall health of the region.

Leonard Egede, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine at MCW will lead the relaunched center. Dr. Egede recently received a $2.8 million, six-year grant from the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment to spearhead COME ALIVE MILWAUKEE: Community Empowerment and Lifestyle Intervention for Ethnic Minorities, a project aiming to reduce the burden of chronic disease and eliminate health disparities in high-risk minority communities through direct patient intervention, as well as to grow the next generation of researchers. Dr. Egede also holds a leadership role in MCW’s Clinical & Translational Science Institute (CTSI), which advances translational science across the entire translational spectrum.

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About the Medical College of Wisconsin

With a history dating back to 1893, The Medical College of Wisconsin is dedicated to leadership and excellence in education, patient care, research and community engagement. More than 1,200 students are enrolled in MCW’s medical school and graduate school programs in Milwaukee, Green Bay, and Central Wisconsin. MCW’s School of Pharmacy opened in 2017. A major national research center, MCW is the largest research institution in the Milwaukee metro area and second largest in Wisconsin. In FY2016, faculty received more than $184 million in external support for research, teaching, training and related purposes. This total includes highly competitive research and training awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Annually, MCW faculty direct or collaborate on more than 3,100 research studies, including clinical trials. Additionally, more than 1,500 physicians provide care in virtually every specialty of medicine for more than 525,000 patients annually.