AHRQ Views: 20 Years of Innovation From the Digital Healthcare Research Program

AHRQ Stats: Electronic Nicotine Product Use by Age

In 2021, 30.6 percent of adults aged 18 to 24 reported having used an electronic nicotine product, the highest among any age group. By comparison, 25.2 percent of adults aged 25 to 34, 17.9 percent of adults aged 35 to 44, 11.2 percent of those aged 45 to 64 and 4.1 percent of those aged 65 and older reported using electronic nicotine products. (Source: AHRQ Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Statistical Brief #554, Characteristics of Young Adults Aged 18-24 Who Had Ever Used an Electronic Nicotine Product, 2021.)

Today's Headlines:

• AHRQ Views: 20 Years of Innovation From the Digital Healthcare Research Program
• Study Highlights Factors Influencing Provider Burnout in Federally Qualified Health Centers
• Submit Future Research Topics by March 30 to Effective Health Care Program
• Webinar: How To Join an AHRQ Program on Improving Antibiotic Use in Telemedicine
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network
• Findings Available From 2024 Surveys on Patient Safety Culture® Medical Office Database
• New Research and Evidence From AHRQ
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature.

AHRQ Views: 20 Years of Innovation From the Digital Healthcare Research Program

The 20th anniversary of AHRQ’s Digital Healthcare Research Program and its support for transforming the fabric of delivering care with groundbreaking discoveries is the subject of a new AHRQ Views blog post. AHRQ has had a foundational role shaping many of today’s modern information systems in healthcare. Over the past 20 years the Digital Healthcare Research Program has been instrumental in demonstrating the effectiveness telehealthcare, advancing scalable clinical decision support and enhancing digital healthcare safety. Today, as the program navigates new advances bolstered by additional artificial intelligence tools, AHRQ remains committed to the ethical, equity-focused use of technologies while ensuring that quality and safety remain paramount. Access the blog post authored by AHRQ Director Robert Otto Valdez, Ph.D., M.H.S.A.; Chris Dymek, Ed.D., director of the agency’s Digital Healthcare Research Division; and Kevin Chaney, M.G.S., senior advisor for dissemination and innovation. To receive all blog posts, submit your email address.

Study Highlights Factors Influencing Provider Burnout in Federally Qualified Health Centers

Pressures related to patient care and lower job satisfaction were linked to higher burnout, according to an AHRQ-funded study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. Researchers conducted a cross-sectional survey of 143 providers with 74 responding from 44 urban Federally Qualified Health Center clinics, who often experience burnout, to explore the relationship between burnout and perspectives on quality improvement, patient experience, clinic culture and job satisfaction. They found that about 30 percent of providers reported burnout. Overall, the rate of physician burnout dropped below 50 percent in 2019 for the first time since 2011, but it remains much higher than the burnout rate among U.S. workers in general. They concluded that the creation of environments supporting provider-team relationships and discussions about improving care, along with facilitative leadership, could protect against provider burnout. Access the abstract.

Submit Future Research Topics by March 30 to Effective Health Care Program

Nominations for new research topics for Effective Health Care (EHC) Program evidence reviews are due March 30. AHRQ encourages the public to participate in the agency’s EHC Program, which conducts evidence reviews to inform healthcare decision-making on drugs, devices, surgeries and approaches to healthcare delivery. Topic nominations will be reviewed to determine the focus of AHRQ evidence reviews for next fiscal year. Since 1997, the EPC Program has published more than 850 research reports to help:

• Clinicians and policymakers understand the benefits and harms of different tests and treatments
• Health systems and policymakers understand the best options for implementing a new program or intervention
• Patients make better decisions about their healthcare options
• Inform actions needed to reduce health disparities

Access information about how to submit a research topic or send questions to epc@ahrq.hhs.gov.

Webinar: How To Join an AHRQ Program on Improving Antibiotic Use in Telemedicine

Register now to attend a brief informational webinar to get details on how to join the AHRQ Safety Program for Telemedicine: Improving Antibiotic Use, a no-cost, 18-month national program to strengthen antibiotic prescribing practices. Webinars will be held on several dates in March, April and May. The program starts in June 2024 and is open to primary and urgent care practices and retail clinics that use telemedicine.

Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network

AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network (PSNet) highlights journal articles, books and tools related to patient safety. Articles featured this week include:

• The effect of computerised decision support alerts tailored to intensive care on the administration of high-risk drug combinations, and their monitoring: a cluster randomised stepped-wedge trial.
• Why simulation matters: a systematic review on medical errors occurring during simulated health care.
• Prevalence, contributing factors, and interventions to reduce medication errors in outpatient and ambulatory settings: a systematic review.
• Assessing diagnostic performance.

Review additional new publications in PSNet’s current issue or access recent cases and commentaries in AHRQ’s WebM&M (Morbidity and Mortality Rounds on the Web).

Findings Available From 2024 Surveys on Patient Safety Culture® Medical Office Database

Results from AHRQ’s Surveys on Patient Safety Culture® (SOPS®) Medical Office: 2024 User Database Report are now available. The 2024 Report includes a description of the findings and two appendices, presenting data by medical office characteristics (number of providers, single specialty vs. multispecialty, primary care specialty, specific specialty, ownership and geographic region) and respondent characteristics (staff position and tenure in medical office).  

New Research and Evidence From AHRQ

• Technical Brief (draft open for comment): Documentation Burden

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Decision-making during high-risk events: a systematic literature review. Reale C, Salwei ME, Militello LG, et al. J Cogn Eng Decis Mak. 2023 Jun;17(2):188-212. Epub 2023 Jan 17. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Guideline concordance and antibiotic-associated adverse events between Veterans Administration and non-Veterans Administration dental settings: a retrospective cohort study. Ramanathan S, Evans CT, Hershow RC, et al. Front Pharmacol. 2024 Jan 16;15:1249531. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Infant health care disruptions by race and ethnicity, income, and insurance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eliason EL, Agostino J, Vivier P. Acad Pediatr. 2024 Jan-Feb;24(1):105-10. Epub 2023 Jul 23. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Impact of social needs case management on use of medical and behavioral health services: secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial. Fleming MD, Guo C, Knox M, et al. Ann Intern Med. 2023 Aug;176(8):1139-41. Epub 2023 Aug 8. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

An mHealth design to promote medication safety in children with medical complexity. Jolliff A, Coller RJ, Kearney H, et al. Appl Clin Inform. 2024 Jan;15(1):45-54. Epub 2023 Nov 21. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Hospital-physician integration and clinical volume in traditional Medicare. Post B, Hollenbeck BK, Norton EC, et al. Health Serv Res. 2024 Feb;59(1):e14172. Epub 2023 May 29. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Seeing things the same way: perspectives and lessons learned from research-design collaborations. Mangal S, Berger L, Bruzzese JM, et al. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2024 Jan 18;31(2):542-7. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Social determinants of health documentation in structured and unstructured clinical data of patients with diabetes: comparative analysis. Mehta S, Lyles CR, Rubinsky AD, et al. JMIR Med Inform. 2023 Aug 22;11:e46159. Access the abstract on PubMed®.