The School of Medicine and Health Sciences has created a new Center for Healthcare Innovation and Policy Research, according to a press release.

The new center “focuses on multi-disciplinary, collaborative scholarship on enhancing value in health care delivery” and will absorb the Office of Clinical Practice Innovation and Urgent Matters, “expanding its reach across GW,” according to the release.

Jesse Pines, the new center’s director and a professor of emergency medicine and health policy and management, said in the release that a major focus of the center will be “the rigorous study of the most innovative practices in medical care with the goal of promoting evidence-based public policy.”

“We hope to contribute to effective policymaking and improve healthcare in a time of major delivery system and payment changes,” Pines said in the release.

The center’s core faculty includes Pines; Steven Farmer, who will act as the center’s associate director and is also an associate professor of medicine, Andrew Meltzer, an associate professor of emergency medicine, Barbara Gage, an associate professor of clinical research and leadership and Trudy Mallinson, also an associate professor of clinical research and leadership, according to the release.

The center will create partnerships both within GW and across the nation, which will be formally recognized through a fellows and scholars program, according to the release.