A qualitative evaluation of the National Centers of Excellence in Women's Health Program

A qualitative evaluation was conducted at 15 nationally designated Centers of Excellence in Women's Health (CoEs) that were funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (DHHS) Office on Women's Health at the time of data collection. The evaluation focused on organizational issues including: 1) the impact of CoE designation on the recipient institutions; 2) the greatest strengths and challenges affecting the CoEs and their core components of research, clinical care, professional education, leadership, and community outreach; and 3) whether the core components developed an interface and coordinated with one another as intended according to the DHHS national model. A total of 91 individuals were interviewed for the evaluation. The study indicates that the national designation served to legitimize and expand the scope of women's health within the recipient institutions. The CoEs enhanced collaboration among researchers and practitioners, and were able to leverage additional resources. The core components largely were successful at interfacing in accordance with the national model. Notwithstanding these successes, the CoEs remain susceptible to failure if they do not gain additional support for the concept of women's health within the recipient institutions, and will not remain durable without additional and stable funding sources.