Polly Hitchcock Noel, Ph.D.

• Professional Background

  Education

  • 1998 - Postdoctoral Fellowship - Health Psychology - Audie L. Murphy Division, South Texas Veterans Health Care System
  • 1993 - Internship - Clinical Psychology/Behavioral Medicine Track - Brown University Clinical Psychology Internship Consortium
  • 1993 - PhD - Clinical Psychology/Health Psychology Track - Louisiana State University
  • 1984 - MA - Clinical Psychology - University of Texas at El Paso
  • 1977 - BA - Psychology - University of Texas at Austin
  • 1975 - Psychology - Trinity University

  Appointments

  • 9/2018 - Professor/Research and Professor/Research - UT Health San Antonio, Family & Community Medicine, San Antonio
  • 7/2013 - Affiliate Research Health Scientist - South Texas Veterans Health Care SystemSan Antonio

• Instruction & Training

  • 9/2005 - Present, Health Services Research, The University of Texas Health Science Center

• Research & Grants

  Grants

  Federal

  Funding Agency VA HSR&D Title Elizabeth Dole Center of Excellence for Veteran and Caregiver Research Status Active Period 10/2018 - 9/2023 Role Co-Investigator Grant Detail The Elizabeth Dole COE will serve as a model of excellence in peer-reviewed research on innovation, training, evaluation, implementation, and the dissemination and adoption of best practices in supporting caregivers of veterans across the VA, the federal government, and private and nonprofit sectors. Funding Agency NIH/NCATS Title Institute for the Integration of Medicine & Science: A Partnership to Improve Health Status Active Period 5/2018 - 4/2022 Role Co-Investigator Grant Detail The mission of the IIMS is to achieve optimal integration of clinical and translational research, education, and training, and career development across all UTHSCSA school and among partner organizations in the South Texas Region. Funding Agency Administration on Community Living Title Community of Dementia Excellence: Successfully Aging & Living in San Antonio Status Active Period 9/2018 - 9/2021 Role Co-Investigator Grant Detail Community of Dementia Excellence: Successfully Aging & Living in San Antonio (CODE: SALSA)
  The overall goal of this project is to strengthen home and community-based services for persons with dementia and their caregivers and foster a dementia-capable community in San Antonio Funding Agency VA HSR&D Title Improving Patient-Centered Care Coordination for High Risk Veterans in PACT Status Active Period 10/2015 - 9/2020 Role Co-Investigator Grant Detail This quality improvement program project is testing the effectiveness of an on-line toolkit vs. online toolkit & distance coaching to initiatives to improve care coordination for high-risk Veterans in primary care. Funding Agency Veterans Administration Title VA Vascular Injury Study (VAVIS): VA-DOD extremity injury outcomes collaboration Status Active Period 4/2015 - 9/2020 Role Co-Investigator Grant Detail This grant will define long-term outcomes of extremity vascular repairs, which are currently not available in the civilian or military trauma literature in regards to limb function and repair patency. Furthermore, monitoring of the repair with duplex ultrasound and drug therapies such as antiplatelet agents to improve patency rates are based upon studies in patients with atherosclerosis as the etiology of the vascular repair rather than traumatic injury. To better understand the outcomes and needs of this group of Veterans, the following 3 aims will be performed: 1) Compare injury, demographic and geospatial characteristics of patients with initial in-theatre limb salvage (IILS) and identify late vascular surgery related limb complications and health care utilization in Veterans receiving VA vs. non-VA care. 2) Characterize the preventive services received by individuals with vascular repair and related outcomes. 3) Describe patient-reported functional outcomes in Veterans with traumatic vascular limb injuries. Funding Agency NIH/NCATS Title Institute for Integration of Medicine & Science (IIMS): A Partnership to Improve Health Status Active Period 5/2013 - 10/2018 Role Co-Investigator Grant Detail IIMS Co-Investigator and Course Co-Director for Master of Science in Clinical Investigation Funding Agency VA Health Services Research & Development Title Sensemaking in VHA Health Care Systems: A Focus on Readmissions Status Active Period 10/2014 - 9/2018 Role Co-Investigator Grant Detail The overall goal of this project is to use reduction of early readmissions as an example of a task that requires management of complex organizational interdependencies. Specific objectives are to: 1) Elucidate how sensemaking unfolds across professional cultures and organizational units to reduce readmissions, the origins of which cannot easily be attributed to any one single organizational or patient level failure; and 2) Build an agent-based model based on results from the qualitative data to gain further insights into the interdependencies and relative effects of the various agents and their actions on readmission rates. Funding Agency NCATS/IIMS Title Linking older primary care patients to community-based resources to improve health and functioning. Status Active Period 1/2017 - 12/2017 Role Principal Investigator Grant Detail This pilot project will assess the feasibility, acceptability, and preferred strategies for implementing a referral and feedback system between primary care providers and local multipurpose senior centers operated by the City of San Antonio. Findings will inform the development of future implementation research to establish and enhance primary care-senior center partnerships to help prevent and control diabetes in socioeconomically vulnerable, older primary care patients.

• Publications

  Journal Article

  Noel PH. Staff Perspectives on a Primary Care Team as De Facto "Hubs" for Care Coordination in VA: a Qualitative Study J Gen Intern Med 2019 May;34:82-89. Finley EP, Mader M, Haro EK, Noel PH, Bernardy N, Rosen CS, Bollinger M, Garcia HA, Sherrieb K, Pugh MJV. Use of guideline-recommended treatments for PTSD among community-based providers in Texas and Vermont: Implications for the Veterans Choice Program J Behav Health Serv Research 2019 Apr;46(2):217-233. Liang Y, Ketchum NS, Turner BJ, Flores J, Bullock D, Villarreal R, Noel PH, Yin MT, Taylor BS. Cardiovascular Risk Assessment Varies Widely by Calculator and Race/Ethnicity in a Majority Latinix Cohort Living with HIV [Epub ahead of print] J Immigr Minor Health 2019 Apr;. Haro E, Mader M, Noel PH, Garcia H, Vogt D, Bernardy N, Bollinger M, Pugh MJV, Finley EP. The Impact of Trust, Satisfaction, and Perceived Quality on Preference for Setting of Future Care Among Veterans with PTSD. [Epub ahead of print] Mil Med 2019 Apr;. Penney LS, Musarrat Nahid, Leykum LK, Lanham HJ, Noel PH, Finley EP, Pugh JA. Interventions to Reduce Readmissions: Can complex adaptive system theory explain the heterogeneity in effectiveness? A systematic review BMC Health Services Research 2018 Nov;18(894):1-10. Finley EP, Noel PH, Lee S, Haro EK, Garcia HA, Rosen C, Bernardy N, Pugh MJ, Pugh JA. Psychotherapy practices for Veterans with PTSD among community-based providers in Texas Psychological Services 2018 Nov;15(4):442-452. Noel, HP, Parchman, ML, Hazuda HP, Wang CP, Espinoza SE, Finley EP, Bollinger M. Provider-related linkages between primary care clinics and community-based senior centers associated with diabetes-related outcomes [Epub ahead of print] Journal of Applied Gerontology 2018 Jun;. Ganz DA, Barnard JM, Smith NZY, Miake-Lye IM, Develan DM, Simon A, Rose DE, Stockdale SE, Chang ET, Noel PH, Finley EP, Lee ML, Zulman DM, Corasco KM, Rubenstein LV. Development of a web-based toolkit to support improvement of care coordination in primary care Transl Behav Med 2018 May;8(3):492-502. Penney LS, Leykum LK, Noel PH, Finley EP, Lanham HJ, Pugh JA. Protocol for a Mixed Methods Study of Hospital Readmissions: Sensemaking in Veterans Health Administration Health Care System in the United States BMJ Open 2018 Apr;8(4):1-14. Finley EP, Noel PH, Mader M, Haro E, Bernardy N, Rosen CS, Bollinger M, Garcia HA, Sherrieb K, Pugh MJ. Community clinicians and the Veterans Choice Program for PTSD care: Understanding provider interest during early implementation Medical Care 2017 Jul;55:S61-S70. Pugh MJ, Finley EP, Wang CP, Copeland LA, Jaramillo C, Swan AA, Elnitsky CA, Leykum LK, Mortensen EM, Eapen BC, Noel PH, Pugh JA, TRACC Research Team. A Retrospective Cohort Study of Comorbidity Trajectories Associated with Traumatic Brain Injury in Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars Brain Injury 2016 Nov;30(12):1481-1490. Noel PH, Parchman ML, Finley EP, Wang CP, Bollinger ML, Espinoza SE, Hazuda HP. Primary care-public health linkages: Older primary care patients with prediabetes and type 2 diabetes encouraged to attend community-based senior centers Preventive Medicine Reports 2016 Jan;4:283-288. Noel PH, Jones S, Parchman ML. Patient experience in an era of primary care transformation: Revisiting the PACIC European Journal for Person Centered Healthcare 2016 Jan;4(3):528-540. Finley EP, Bollinger M, Noel PH, Pugh JA, Amuan M, Copeland LA, Dassori AM, Palmer RF, Bryan CJ, Pugh MJ. A national cohort study of the association between the polytrauma clinical triad and suicide-related behavior among US Veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan American Journal of Public Health 2015 Feb;:380-387. McMillan KK, Pugh MJ, Hamid H, Salinsky M, Pugh JA, Noel PH, Finley EP, Leykum LK, Lanham HJ, LaFrance WC. Providers` Perspectives on Treating Psychogenic Nonepileptic Seizures: Frustration and Hope Epilepsy & Behavior 2014 Aug;37:276-281. Noel PH, Romero RL, Robertson M, Parchman M. Key activities used by community-based primary care clinics to improve the quality of diabetes care in response to practice facilitation Quality in Primary Care 2014 Aug;22(4):211-219. Pugh MJ, Leykum LK, Lanham HJ, Finley EP, Noel PH, McMillan, Katherine K, Pugh JA. Implementation of the Epilepsy Center of Excellence to improve access to and quality of care - protocol for a mixed methods study Implementation Science 2014 Apr;9(44). Noel PH Noel PH, Parchman ML, Palmer RF, Romero RL, Leykum LK, Lanham HJ, Zeber JE, Bowers KW. Alignment of patient and primary care practice member perspectives of chronic illness care: a cross-sectional analysis BMC Family Practice 2014 Apr;15(1):57-57. Pugh MJ, Finley EP, Copeland LA, Wang CP, Noel PH, Amuan, Parsons HM, Wells M, Elizondo B, Pugh JA. Complex comorbidity clusters in OEF/OIF Veterans: the polytrauma clinical triad and beyond Medical Care 2014 Feb;52(2):172-181.