About the Medical College of Wisconsin Center for Advancing Population Science (CAPS)

The purposes of the Center are to conduct research on patient care services and related health outcomes, to facilitate a supportive environment for MCW investigators new to this area, to determine the need for and recruit new faculty in targeted methodologic areas, and to sponsor a health services research seminar series as a forum for the exchange of ideas.

Accelerate Discovery

Build a cohesive and dynamic research infrastructure that rapidly adapts to the changing environment.

Health Starts from Within

Recruit and mentor a cadre of multi-disciplinary investigators.

Health of Our Community

Build healthier communities and eliminate inequalities in health at the local, national and international level.

Preferred Choice

Disseminate and implement evidence-based strategies to transform healthcare.

Think Next Gen

Create pathways for health services researchers and innovators.

Who We Are

Center History
Current Center Structure and Leadership

Center History

The Center for Advancing Population Science was founded in 2001 as the Center for Patient Care and Outcomes Research (PCOR). The center’s foundational mission was to conduct cutting-edge research on the provision of effective and efficient patient care services to impact health outcomes. MCW School of Medicine’s current Vice Dean and Associate Provost for Research, Dr. Ann Nattinger, was PCOR’s founding director until her leadership transition in 2016. As the center director, Dr. Nattinger developed PCOR into a hub for interdisciplinary health services and health disparities researchers from across the institution.

In 2017, Dr. Leonard Egede was appointed as PCOR’s new center director. Within his first 6 months, Dr. Egede formed a strategic planning group and hosted a strategic planning retreat with the center’s faculty and staff. The purpose of the retreat was twofold: 1) to reflect on PCORs contributions to patient care and the institution and, 2) establish a strategy for positioning the center to meet future healthcare needs and improve population health beyond clinical settings. As a result of the strategic planning retreat, the Center for Patient Care and Outcomes Research (PCOR) relaunched under its new name, the Center for Advancing Population Science (CAPS), in mid-2017. The CAPS name, along with a new vision and mission, communicated the center’s expanded focus on population science, health services research, community-based research, and global health.

Current Center Structure and Leadership

In July of 2024, Dr. Joni Williams was appointed as CAPS new center director. Dr. Williams seeks to build on CAPS legacy as a hub for clinicians, PhD scholars, and trainees conducting health services research and translational science, with diverse populations in various settings, within the health system and across the broader community. In early 2025, Dr. Williams convened a new group of CAPS Strategic Planning Leaders. The strategic planning leaders help set priorities for the center that align with its mission and vision, MCW’s strategic goals, and position CAPS to adapt to a rapidly changing research environment while staying true to its name and overall objective - to advance population science.

View strategic planning leaders

Population Science

Population science is a research discipline focused on human populations and their health and wellbeing. The overall aim of the discipline is to discover what factors improve population health and ensure humans can be as healthy as possible. To do this, researchers seek to understand why certain populations are healthier than others by uncovering factors that lead to poor health and premature death, as well as the factors that support good health. This includes research on individual health behaviors within the context of the physical, behavioral, and social environments, health care access and treatment, access to basic needs, and socioeconomic and sociocultural factors. The overall aim of population science is to improve population health.

Population Health

Population health is an evolving term that originated within healthcare systems as a way for providers and payers to describe the patient population receiving services. Broadly, population health has been defined as “the health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such health outcomes within the group.” From the perspective of the healthcare system, population health can refer to cost effective solutions for addressing significant health issues and concerns within their patient population. This sometimes includes working within the communities where both patients and non-patients reside and partnering with non-profits, payers, and other health systems to address population health of the entire community. From a public health perspective, population health refers to the distribution and determinants of health in all populations. The Center for Population Science utilizes both the healthcare and public health perspectives in our approach to improving population health.

Health Services Research

Health Services Research is a multidisciplinary field that incorporates research on social factors, financing systems, organizational structures and processes, health technology, and health behaviors. It offers a unique position to understand how access to care, systems and costs of care, and the social determinants of health intersect to create disparities and influence health. For that reason, CAPS is a multidisciplinary team of researchers covering a variety of disease areas, spanning influence from individuals to health systems to policy.

Center Infrastructure

Center Pillars of Operations
Center Programs

Center Pillars of Operations

Center Pillars of Operation strengthen the overall infrastructure of the center by ensuring the continuity of all center activities are efficient, effective, and strategic.

Center Programs

Center Programs are topic areas where several funded investigators carry out projects, develop new grant submissions based on their work, and train junior faculty in conducting high quality health services research in the area.