Where Science Meets Service: Aptive’s FERSS Team Advances VA Research Nationwide

Where Science Meets Service

 

Aptive’s FERSS Team Advances VA Research Nationwide

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Behind every breakthrough in Veterans’ health care is a network of researchers, clinicians, data scientists and administrators who make the work possible. At the Department of Veterans Affairs, that network extends to Aptive, whose team of health research specialists embedded across the country does the work that keeps VA science moving.

Through VA’s Field Enterprise Research Support Services, known as FERSS, Aptive deploys a multidisciplinary team of nearly two dozen professionals at VA medical centers and central offices nationwide. The work spans data analytics, biostatistics, research administration, committee management, training and workforce support. Each assignment is distinct, but all of it points toward the same goal: helping VA conduct research that serves Veterans.

“This team is proof of what embedded, mission-driven support looks like in practice,” said Aptive Project Manager Kristi Steinhauer. “Every person on FERSS is doing work that directly enables VA researchers to focus on what they do best.”

Research on the Cutting Edge: Cleveland

At the VA Northeast Ohio Healthcare System, research coordinator Zach Stanley supports both the Research and Development Committee and the Safety Committee, which oversees chemical safety, personal protective equipment, recombinant DNA protocols and other compliance requirements for active studies. His colleague Romualdo Ancog supports the R&D committee with study reviews, meeting documentation and coordination.

The research at Cleveland’s Functional Electrical Stimulation Center is unlike what most people picture when they think of medical studies. One ongoing effort involves implantable devices that restore sensation to Veterans who have lost limbs, allowing them to feel pressure in their fingers and hand.

The Northeast Ohio VA’s portfolio also includes clinical trials, oncology studies, investigational new drugs and devices, and early-stage laboratory research. For Stanley, whose grandfather, brother, father-in-law and brother-in-law have all served in the military, the motivation behind the work runs deep.

“The research that we do is very specific, built to serve Veterans,” he said. “Repetitive blast exposure, amputee prosthetics, Agent Orange, the long-term effects of combat service on the body, these are not things you find in the general research population. No one else would be doing this research without VA.”

“It allows them to, for example, play with their grandkids again, because they don’t have to worry about gripping too hard. They can actually feel the pressure now.”

— Zach Stanley

Mapping Infectious Disease: Hudson Valley and VA SHIELD

Ariana Paredes-Vincent serves as project manager and lead data analyst for the Vector-Borne Environmental and Zoonotic Disease Work Group under VA’s Science and Health Initiative to Combat Infectious and Emerging Life-Threatening Diseases, known as VA SHIELD. Based out of the VA Hudson Valley Healthcare System, her work is national in scope.

Paredes-Vincent extracts and analyzes data from VA’s Central Data Warehouse, which holds electronic medical records for Veterans across the country. She built a dashboard that allows infectious disease researchers to track disease burden and change over time, turning complex data sets into resources that support publications, grant proposals and cross-site collaboration. Before joining VA, she worked on HIV and tuberculosis surveillance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s operations in South Africa.

The program is now expanding. A newly approved study is examining the relationship between Lyme disease and other tick-borne diagnoses and mental health outcomes, including suicide behavior. The team is also building a biorepository of patient specimens to support future research.

“What I love most is that I make data accessible and interpretable. It increases scientific output and makes the case for why the VA data system is such a powerful resource for research.”

— Ariana Paredes-Vincent

Committee Management and Research Administration

Much of Aptive’s FERSS work is the infrastructure that research runs on such as compliance documentation, committee management, IRB submissions and process improvement. Across eight sites, ten Aptive team members are carrying that work.

Tamara Truong provides administrative support to three oversight committees at the Milwaukee VA Medical Center: the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, the Subcommittee on Research Safety and Security and the Institutional Biosafety Committee. She manages research submissions through IRBNet, conducts preliminary reviews, facilitates meetings and drafts determination letters to investigators. A researcher herself, she has applied that perspective to streamlining the administrative burden on VA research staff across multiple sites, including a full IRBNet system transition at the San Francisco VA that she and two colleagues completed in roughly a year.

At the Boston VA Healthcare System, Noelle Yarn supports the Institutional Review Board, reviewing submissions, preparing committee agendas and communicating outcomes to research teams. Imanni Mebane, with Aptive since 2022, divides her time between Boston and the VA Durham site, where she serves as Subcommittee on Research Safety and Security manager.

“There’s always something new,” Mebane said. “Every day there’s a new rule or a better way to do something. That’s my favorite part.”

 

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Data Science and Informatics Support

Hayden Spence came to Aptive from the Defense Health Agency with a background in health informatics and data analytics. On the FERSS contract, he has supported VA investigators and analytics teams with statistical analysis, genomics, research database construction and data management across a range of clinical disciplines.

His work requires getting close to the science. A physician once walked him through how kidney cysts appear in imaging data, which shaped how Spence built out the corresponding research data sets. He now mentors other data-focused team members, helping colleagues work through problems and build out Aptive’s informatics bench.

“What I like is being able to make people’s work easier,” he said, “and knowing that ultimately, this work directly affects the care of Veterans.”

National-Level Research Program Management

Sarah Fodero works at VA’s central office in the Health Systems Research division of the Office of Research and Development, supporting the Centers of Innovation (COIN) program. The network includes 20 centers embedded at medical facilities across the country, each focused on improving the VA health system. Fodero provides program management as well as process improvement and workflow optimization support. Her team is exploring how to best implement innovative processes and platforms that can further improve communication and collaboration across the field.

The FERSS model, she said, works because Aptive staff aren’t treated like outside vendors. She also made the case for the broader value contractors bring.

“When you hire us, you don’t just get me,” she said. “You get the entire machine that is Aptive.”

Research Education and Training: ePROS

Kelmern Tunstall and Sheritta Middlebrooks support VA’s Enterprise Protections, Regulatory, Outreach and Systems division, known as ePROS, within the Office of Research and Development. Their work centers on the Research Education and Training section, which runs a VA-wide webinar program for researchers across all disciplines.

Tunstall manages the scheduling and tracking platform, analyzes post-webinar survey data and helps build a SharePoint-based VA Research Community portal that serves as a one-stop resource hub. Middlebrooks handles end-to-end webinar logistics, from preparing presenters to capturing Q&A content and posting session materials. Before the Aptive team joined, their client was running the entire program alone.

“She never felt like she could take a vacation,” Tunstall said. “We have alleviated a ton of stress. We keep telling her: we’re here to help.”

“When you hire us, you don’t just get me,” she said. “You get the entire machine that is Aptive.”

— Sarah Fodero

 

The Aptive Difference

Across sites and disciplines, this team is doing work built for one population. The research they support, on blast injury, prosthetic restoration, tick-borne disease, organ health and more, would not exist without VA. Ensuring it can move forward requires people who understand the mission behind it.

“Being a part of this and being able to push research for Veterans forward is an exciting process,” Ancog said. For the Aptive FERSS team, that’s the whole point.

 

 

About FERSS: VA’s Field Enterprise Research Support Services program provides short-term, flexible contracting support to VA research projects, offices and committees nationwide. Aptive has supported FERSS since 2022 with a team of health data experts, research study coordinators and public health specialists.