Janet Prvu Bettger, ScD, FAHA has joined Duke Orthopaedics as an Associate Professor in the orthopaedic surgery department, and the inaugural director of our health policy and implementation research program, the only program of its kind in an orthopaedic department.
Dr. Bettger’s research is dedicated to improving health care quality and care coordination for older adults with chronic conditions and those at risk for functional decline. She is the principal investigator on a national Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) grant to study the comparative effectiveness of rehabilitation and a PI on two NIH funded studies to examine outcomes after inpatient rehabilitation. Related to these large database studies is the implementation research she leads on transitional care and interdisciplinary interventions to prevent adverse events. Dr. Bettger is leading a multi-site, transitional care health care quality collaborative in Ohio funded by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and the State of Ohio, and is a co-investigator on the RECOVER Trial in China, a randomized controlled trial of early supported discharge and transitional care in rural China.
Janet grew up in Canada and finished her kinesiology degree at Western University before moving to the U.S. to study models of integrated care to reduce post-acute disability. After living in the Midwest and in Seattle, she drove back across the country where on her fifth day in Boston she met her husband Mark, a Rhode Island native and recent Berklee College of Music grad.
They married and lived in Boston while Janet worked in state government and completed her doctorate at Boston University. They moved to Philadelphia and got their dog Cooper (now 9), had their son Alex (now 8), Janet completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania, and Mark completed his MBA. February 2010 brought 75 inches of snow to Philadelphia and the Bettger’s were happy to be recruited to Duke that spring. The year of 2016 brings some exciting changes for the Bettgers as Mark transitions from DOCR to General Internal Medicine as their new department administrator and Janet transitions from the Duke School of Nursing to join the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery’s faculty. They are looking forward to the adventures ahead!