AHRQ Helps Link Academic Researchers With Large Health System To Advance Understanding of Clinical Care for COVID-19

AHRQ Stats: Opioid Use Among Elderly Adults

In 2018 and 2019, 15.8 percent of elderly adults filled at least one outpatient opioid prescription during the year, and 4.9 percent obtained five or more prescriptions in the same time period. (Source: AHRQ, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Statistical Brief #541, Any Use and “Frequent Use” of Opioids among Elderly Adults in 2018-2019, by Socioeconomic Characteristics.)

Today's Headlines:

• AHRQ Helps Link Academic Researchers With Large Health System To Advance Understanding of Clinical Care for COVID-19.
• AHRQ Director Endorses Call To Redouble Patient Safety Efforts.
• Lack of Patient Input Identified as Critical Challenge for Clinical Decision Support.
• New Resource Helps Nursing Homes Incorporate Infection Prevention Into Emergency Preparedness Plans.
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network.
• Register Now for AHRQ Webinars on Digital Healthcare.
• Job Opportunities at AHRQ.
• Provide Feedback by May 24 on AHRQ’s Framework for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Investments.
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature.

AHRQ Helps Link Academic Researchers With Large Health System To Advance Understanding of Clinical Care for COVID-19

In 2020, AHRQ was approached by leaders of the HCA Healthcare system to provide advice on how their large clinical data warehouse related to the care of patients with COVID-19 might be used to increase the understanding of COVID-19 and its treatment. These discussions led to the formation of the Consortium of HCA Healthcare and Academia for Research Generation (CHARGE). This novel partnership between a private healthcare system, multiple research teams and AHRQ is described in a new commentary in JAMA. Within months of its formation, CHARGE members initiated 10 research projects, several of which have led to publications and presentations. Most projects addressed clinical questions confronting frontline care teams. CHARGE provides a model of how a learning health system can leverage its data through partnerships to expand and accelerate evidence development. The consortium continues to use additional longitudinal data and launch additional studies. Access the abstract.

AHRQ Director Endorses Call To Redouble Patient Safety Efforts

AHRQ Director Robert Otto Valdez, Ph.D., MH.S.A., has joined a call to advance patient safety and recommit to steps outlined in Safer Together: A National Action Plan to Advance Patient Safety. The report released in 2020 by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) guides healthcare leaders, delivery organizations, and associations in their efforts to ensure safer care. This week, IHI’s National Steering Committee for Patient Safety called for immediate action to address safety and implored healthcare leaders to adopt and uphold safety as a core value. “AHRQ applauds today’s release of the Declaration to Advance Patient Safety and the recommendations healthcare leaders can adopt for improving safety of care,” Dr. Valdez said. “The COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated the need to put safety at the heart of every institution’s standard operating procedures. In addition, it’s clear that disparities continue to plague delivery of care, and addressing health equity must be a top priority.” Dr. Valdez added that AHRQ resources can help organizations by creating a culture that protects patients and the healthcare workforce.

Lack of Patient Input Identified as Critical Challenge for Clinical Decision Support

Patient-centered clinical decision support systems hold great promise to improve healthcare quality and patient safety, but a lack of patient input into their development and implementation is a critical challenge to their successful use, a new AHRQ-supported study has found. The article, published in Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, consists of a scan of literature and expert interviews to identify challenges in and future directions for patient-centered clinical decision support. Experts told researchers that patient input is critical to prioritizing topics for the technology and to ensuring that it aligns with patients’ routine behaviors. Lack of patient-centered terminology standards was another challenge. Access the abstract.

New Resource Helps Nursing Homes Incorporate Infection Prevention Into Emergency Preparedness Plans

A new AHRQ resource is designed to help nursing homes incorporate infection prevention and control into their emergency preparedness plans. The two-page document follows “all hazards” guidance from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to plan for a wide range of unexpected events. It outlines the critical parts of an emergency preparedness plan, including a section on emerging infectious diseases. The resource is designed to help nursing homes prepare to meet the health, safety and security needs of staff and residents during an emergency or disaster. 

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:

• Presenting complaint: use of language that disempowers patients.
• Establishing psychological safety in clinical supervision: multi-professional perspectives.
• Anti-black racism as a chronic condition.

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).

Register Now for AHRQ Webinars on Digital Healthcare

• Real-World Uses of Clinical Decision Support: A webinar on June 1 from 2 to 3 p.m. ET will highlight lessons learned from pilot projects that integrated patient-generated health data with clinical data in electronic health records (EHRs). Patient-generated health data is not typically integrated into EHRs, hampering clinician workflows, patient-clinician engagement and clinical decision-making. Webinar panelists will share actionable findings from two pilots that deployed clinical decision support interventions that combined patient-generated health data with clinical data from EHRs to support remote patient monitoring.
• Improving Diagnosis and Treatment of Adult Depression Through Digital Healthcare: In a webinar on June 15 from 2:30 to 4 p.m. ET, an expert panel will discuss efforts to improve adult depression diagnosis and treatment using digital healthcare interventions. The speakers will showcase the impact of patient engagement in providing accurate information to providers to aid in diagnosis, with a focus on data collection, collaborative decision-making and self-management techniques.

Job Opportunities at AHRQ

AHRQ is seeking a supervisory health scientist administrator/division director in the agency’s Office of Extramural Research, Education, and Priority Populations. The chosen applicant will lead the Division of Policy Coordination and Analysis, which develops, coordinates and communicates extramural research regulations, policies and procedures, as well as develops grant funding opportunity announcements, among other duties. May 25 is the application deadline. Learn more about this vacancy and others, including:

• Physician, Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement. Application deadline: May 24.
• Health Scientist Administrator, Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement. Application deadline: May 24.

Provide Feedback by May 24 on AHRQ’s Framework for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Investments

May 24 is the deadline for public input on a Federal Register Notice that solicits public input on a draft strategic framework for AHRQ’s future investments in patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) dissemination and implementation projects. The framework will help guide AHRQ’s PCOR investments, long-range planning and the selection and scope of objectives, projects and outcomes. Access more information about AHRQ’s draft framework and the agency’s PCOR activities.

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Preparing for the spread of patient-reported outcome (PRO) data collection from primary care to community pharmacy: a mixed-methods study. Adeoye-Olatunde OA, Curran GM, Jaynes HA, et al. Implement Sci Commun 2022 Mar 14;3(1):29. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Systematic review of the effect of technology-mediated education intervention on maternal outcomes in the first year after birth. Jaynes S, Brathwaite D, Tully KP. J Obstet Gynecol Neonatal Nurs 2022 May;51(3):278-89. Epub 2022 Mar 21. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Clinician satisfaction with advanced clinical decision support to reduce the risk of torsades de pointes. Gallo T, Heise CW, Woosley RL, et al. J Patient Saf 2022 Mar 2. [Epub ahead of print.]  Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Defining diagnostic error: a scoping review to assess the impact of the National Academies' report Improving Diagnosis in Health Care. Giardina TD, Hunte H, Hill MA, et al. J Patient Saf 2022 Apr 27. [Epub ahead of print.] Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Development and validation of a fall prevention efficiency scale. Dykes PC, Khasnabish S, Burns Z, et al. J Patient Saf 2022 Mar 1;18(2):94-101. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Implementation of clinical practice guidelines for hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in academic medical centers. Berger AC, Simchoni N, Auerbach A, et al. JAMA Netw Open 2022 Apr;5(4):e225657. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Association of changes in obesity prevalence with the COVID-19 pandemic in youth in Massachusetts. Wu AJ, Aris IM, Hivert MF, et al. JAMA Pediatr 2022 Feb;176(2):198-201. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Primary care visits and ambulatory care sensitive diabetes hospitalizations among adult Alabama Medicaid beneficiaries. Bronstein JM, Huang L, Shelley JP, et al. Prim Care Diabetes 2022 Feb;16(1):116-21. Epub 2021 Nov 9. Access the abstract on PubMed®.