Amy Kilbourne, PhD, MPH

Janelle Burleigh: [email protected]

Dr. Kilbourne is Director of the VA Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI) and Professor of Learning Health Sciences at the University of Michigan (U-M) Medical School. With over 50 centers across the U.S., the mission of QUERI is to improve Veteran health by accelerating the implementation of research findings into real-world practice and policy.

Dr. Kilbourne’s research goal is to improve population health by testing implementation strategies to facilitate the spread of effective practices in real-world treatment settings. She developed the Enhanced Replicating Effective Programs (E-REP) framework and conducted the first national sequential multiple assignment randomized trial (SMART) to assess the added value of more versus less intensive implementation strategies. 

Dr. Kilbourne received her bachelors of arts at the University of California at Berkeley and her masters and PhD in public health from the University of California Los Angeles.

Research and scholarly interests:

• Implementation science methods and strategies across the translation pipeline
• Quality improvement and implementation strategies to improve uptake of effective practices
• Pragmatic clinical trials of health services-focused interventions

Subject matter expertise:

• Implementation science: development and testing of provider, health system, and policy-level strategies to enhance uptake of effective practices in real-world settings
• Adaptive designs and sequential multiple assignment randomized trials (SMART) in implementation studies
• Integrated behavioral and physical health care interventions
• Evidence-based policy in health care systems 

Other professional highlights:

• Faculty Member, U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation (IHPI)
• Member, NIMH National Advisory Mental Health Council
• Senior Fellow, Partnership for Public Service in Washington, D.C.
• Co-founder, VA Foundations for Evidence-based Policy Workgroup, which is charged with supporting VA's operationalization of the Evidence Act, which requires all Cabinet-level agencies to incorporate evidence and evaluation into national budgetary decisions
• Associate Director for Implementation and Policy, U-M Depression Center
• Launched the QUERI Center for Evaluation and Implementation Resources (CEIR), the QUERI Implementation Roadmap, and accompanying Research Lifecycle which applies Learning Health System and Implementation Science principles across the translational pipeline
• Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) 2011 awardee
• Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) Gerald L. Klerman Research Awardee

• Kilbourne, Co-I (Daumit: PI): Center to Accelerate Translation of Interventions to Decrease Premature Mortality in SMI; P50 MH115842-01; 08/2018 – 05/2022, NIMH
• Kilbourne, PI: Improving Student Mental Health: Adaptive Implementation of School-based CBT; R01 MH114203; 08/2017-05/2022, NIMH
• Kilbourne, Co-I (Cunningham, PI): University of Michigan Injury Prevention Center, 6/2019-6/2024, CDCP
• Kilbourne, PI: Michigan Mental Health Integration Partnership, State of Michigan, Medicaid Match; 10/2016-present, CMS
• Kilbourne/McInnis, PIs: Integrated Self-Management Apps to Enhance Outcomes for Medicaid Consumers, State of Michigan, Medicaid Match ; 10/2016-present, CMS

Selected publications (Out of over 200):

• Kilbourne AM, Schmidt J, Edmunds M, Vega R, Bowersox N, Atkins D. How the VA is training the Next-Generation workforce for learning health systems. Learn Health Syst. 2022 Aug 16;6(4):e10333. doi: 10.1002/lrh2.10333. PMCID: PMC9576233. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9576233/
• Braganza MZ, Pearson E, Avila CJ, Zlowe D, Øvretveit J, Kilbourne AM. Aligning quality improvement efforts and policy goals in a national integrated health system. Health Serv Res. 2022 Jun;57 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):9-19. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.13944. Epub 2022 Mar 4. PMCID: PMC9108213. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9108213/
• Kilbourne AM, Smith SN, Choi SY, Koschmann E, Liebrecht C, Rusch A, Abelson JL, Eisenberg D, Himle JA, Fitzgerald K, Almirall D. Adaptive School-based Implementation of CBT (ASIC): clustered-SMART for building an optimized adaptive implementation intervention to improve uptake of mental health interventions in schools. Implement Sci. 2018;13(1):119. PMCID: PMC6126013. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30185192/

A list of all publications can be found here.