The Measurement Group collaborated with PROTOTYPES on the Evaluation and Dissemination Center for the HRSA/HAB/SPNS Cooperative Agreement Projects between October 1994 and June 2000. During this period, from The Measurement Group, George J. Huba, Ph.D., served as the Director of the EDC, and Lisa A. Melchior, Ph.D., served as an Associate Director, along with Vivian B. Brown, Ph.D., of PROTOTYPES, who also served as an Associate Director. Abigail T. Panter, Ph.D., was a Senior Research Consultant for The Measurement Group. Within the EDC, The Measurement Group was primarily responsible for cross-cutting evaluation activities and scientific dissemination while PROTOTYPES was responsible for the logistical coordination for the Cooperative Agreement.

The following major activities were conducted between 1994 and 2000. For more information, visit the Evaluation and Dissemination Center page for the Health Resources and Services Administration.

1. Over five years, 18 national meetings for 27 projects were planned and conducted. The meetings were typically of 2.5 days, had between 50 and 100 attendees, and had heavily structured components including work on the cross-cutting evaluation, presentations by projects of their achievements, group discussions, and poster sessions. Typically, 4-8 hours of each meeting were devoted to five concurrent work group meetings. The EDC developed the agenda for the meeting, coordinated with the Steering Committee chair and HRSA, and worked with each Work Group chair prior to the meeting.

2. The EDC conducted a national Evaluation Conference during its first year (1995) with 28 sessions encompassing 42 speakers and a poster session in which 40 projects and outside speakers participated.

3. The Measurement Group developed cross-cutting evaluation designs for five work groups, and a total of 103 evaluation modules on such domains as enrollment information, services, barriers to services, and medical outcomes. In addition to disseminating evaluation modules to these 27 grantees, the materials have been made available on the Internet since 1996 and disseminated throughout the world. The materials will continue to be available without cost to users in the future.

4. Between 1995 and 1999, The Measurement Group helped projects collect information on collectively more than 5000 patients and 2000 professionals trained. Data from more than 60 evaluation modules were processed at The Measurement Group using scanning methods, keying, and the extraction of data elements from project-specific databases. The information was entered, cleaned, put into SPSS databases, and returned to grantees quarterly. Complete codebooks were provided and TMG supported individual projects in their use of the data.

5. The EDC conducted poster sessions which included virtually every grantee in 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1999. The 1995, 1996, and 1997 sessions were held in meeting hotels while the 1999 session was held at HRSA. Over the sessions, a total of 103 project posters were prepared either by the EDC or by individual projects most with EDC guidance, many of which were later disseminated on the Internet (see #8) and/or at professional meetings.

6. The EDC provided technical assistance to all 27 grantees through thousands of telephone calls and emails. In addition, 115 site visits were made to 26 of the projects over the course of the grant. Virtually all of these visits were made by the Center Director (Dr. Huba), often accompanied by another professional from the EDC. The site visits were designed to help the projects clarify their own local evaluations, to support HRSA project officer visits, and to maximize the ability of the project to contribute to the cross-cutting evaluation.

7. As part of its own work, The Measurement Group prepared and presented 62 papers at national meetings including the conventions of the American Public Health Association, the American Evaluation Association, the National AIDS Update Conference, the American Psychological Association, the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology, and the National Ryan White Grantee Conference.

8. To disseminate both its own work, and that of individual grantees, The Measurement Group developed a huge website featuring the work of the Evaluation and Dissemination Center and Grantees. The web site features more than 100 evaluation modules and instructions for their use, more than 85 presentations by the EDC and individual projects, statements of lessons learned and accomplishments by individual projects, and an online Knowledge Base (see #9). The Evaluation and Dissemination Center page can be visited by going to www.TheMeasurementGroup.com/edc.htm.

9. The Measurement Group invented a form of disseminating program evaluation and research results – an Online Knowledge Base of findings. The Knowledge Base consists of more than 500 Knowledge Items. Each Knowledge Item is a mini-study of cross-cutting evaluation issues using primarily quantitative data, but also including qualitative information. The Knowledge Items present information about the characteristics of the clients served by the programs, medical and psychosocial outcomes, and relationships of program characteristics to program outcomes. A special feature of this new format is that the same information can be presented in a variety of formats ranging from simple graphs and tables to complex statistical analyses. Users can access the information at the appropriate levels based on their interests and needs for global or very specific information. The information contained in the Knowledge Base is hyperlinked to descriptions of the programs in which the data were collected, the instruments used to collect data, and other related information. The Online Knowledge Base continues to be updated on a daily basis and can be accessed at www.TheMeasurementGroup.com/KB.htm.

10. The EDC was responsible for a editing a two-issue Special Issue of Drugs & Society on results from individual projects and two work groups. EDC staff also contributed four papers to the volume. The papers focus on issues of evaluating programs for individuals with HIV who may also be substance abusers and members of other vulnerable and underserved populations. Dr. Huba was the primary editor, assisted by Dr. Melchior and Dr. Brown along with Dr. Abigail Panter and Dr. Trudy Larson. This Special Issue will also appear as an edited book.

11. The EDC was responsible for writing papers for a two-issue Special Issue of Home Health Care Services Quarterly: The Journal of Community Care on cross-cutting evaluation results that focus on vulnerable and high need populations of individuals with HIV. Dr. Huba was the primary editor, assisted by Dr. Melchior and Dr. Brown along with Drs. Abigail Panter, David Cherin, and June Simmons. The Special Issue will also appear as an edited book.

12. The Measurement Group was responsible for significant parts of the preparation of 29 papers on the cross-cutting evaluation of the Cooperative Agreements that have been published in, or accepted for publication in, peer-reviewed journals. An additional 20 papers are currently in preparation for submission or are in various stages within the peer review process.

---

Related Information:

Evaluation and Dissemination Center: Innovative Models of HIV/AIDS Care 1994-2001