Kentucky Public Health Research Network

Kentucky Public Health Research Network (K-PHReN), the first public health practice-based research network in the United States, is a joint initiative of the College of Public Health and the Kentucky State Department for Public Health. This initiative builds on the community-based research of F. Douglas Scutchfield, MD, professor of health services management, College of Public Health, who continues to serve as an advisor.

The core membership of K-PHReN consists of 18 local Kentucky health departments serving 51 of Kentucky's 120 counties and their community partners. With the inclusion of practice partners , academic partners, and local physician partners, K-PHReN is a "network of networks" united by the common goal of improving the health of Kentucky's residents.

K-PHReN seeks to foster multi-level partnerships that encourage the development of practice-relevant research questions pertinent both on the local level as well as the state level, and initiation of practice-based collaborative research projects in such areas as public-private partnerships, health disparities, public health leadership, and quality improvement.

The first meeting of K-PHReN was held during the spring 2008 Kentucky Ambulatory Network Convocation in Lexington, organized with the help of Dr. Steve Davis, executive director of the Kentucky Department for Public Health. K-PHReN has received $90,000 from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation under its Public Health Practice-Based Research Initiative, one of the first five public health PBRNs to be funded.