You Are Here: AHRQ Home > Clinical Information > Prevention & Chronic Care > Announcements > Announcement Details

Announcement Details

For announcements issued before January 1, 2011, please select http://www.ahrq.gov/ppip/announcearch.htm.

2013 Announcements

1/15/13 Practice Facilitators and Case Managers Can Help Enhance the Primary Care Team

Efforts to redesign primary care require multiple supports. Two potential members of the primary care team—practice facilitator and care manager play distinct roles in redesigning and improving care delivery. Facilitators, also known as quality improvement coaches, assist practices with coordinating their quality improvement activities and help build capacity for those activities— reflecting a systems-level approach to improving quality, safety, and implementation of evidence-based practices. Care Managers provide direct patient care by coordinating care and helping patients navigate the system, improving access for patients, and communicating across the care team. These important, complementary roles aim to help primary care practices deliver coordinated, accessible, comprehensive, and patient-centered care, and are further examined and explained in this paper: Enhancing the Primary Care Team to Provide Redesigned Care: The Roles of Practice Facilitators and Care Managers featured in the January/February online issue of Annals of Family Medicine.

Select to access other resources from the Primary Care Practice Facilitation learning community PCPF Resources.

1/22/13 Share Your Ideas for a New Mobile Prevention and Wellness App

The Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion issued the challenge, and developers are responding! Ideas for a prevention and wellness mobile app that can be used to access customized decision support for preventive services and wellness information from healthfinder.gov are now posted—go take a look and share your feedback!

Would you use any of the apps that are being developed for the challenge? What would you change or add to the apps to make them more user-friendly or to set them apart from the competition? How can the app improve users' access to information about preventive services covered under the health reform law, also called the Affordable Care Act (ACA)? How can the app be improved to better fit into your work and your life?

To view the submissions and share your feedback, visit Health Tech Hatch.

Learn more about how to improve primary care. Visit AHRQ's Prevention & Chronic Care Program at: http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/prevenix.htm.

2/12/13 Updated Guide to Clinical Preventive Services Now Available

AHRQ has announced the release of the updated 2012 Guide to Clinical Preventive Services, an authoritative source on clinical preventive services centered on the evidence-based recommendations of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF).

The 2012 Guide includes the USPSTF's recommendations on clinical preventive services such as screening, counseling, and preventive medications from 2002 through March 2012, topics in development, background about the USPSTF, and additional resources. This edition also includes at-a-glance clinical summary tables for ease of use.

In addition to the Guide,the Task Force provides other resources for primary care clinicians, including:

An up-to-date list of Task Force recommendations available through the A-Z Topic Index on the Task Force Web site.
The electronic Preventive Services Selector (ePSS), an application designed to help primary care clinicians identify clinical preventive services that are appropriate for their patients, which can be downloaded to their mobile devices.

Click here to view, download, or order a free print copy of the Guide.

The USPSTF is an independent group of national experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine that works to improve the health of all Americans by making evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services such as screening, counseling, and preventive medications. More information on the Task Force is available at www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org.

AHRQ's Prevention and Chronic Care Portfolio provides ongoing administrative, research, technical, and dissemination support to the USPSTF. More information is available at http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/prevenix.htm.

2/21/13 2013 Appointment of New USPSTF Members

On February 21, 2013, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) announced the addition of three experts in prevention and primary care to serve as members of the panel. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality appointed the following members to join the Task Force: Francisco A.R. García, M.D., M.P.H.; William R. Phillips, M.D., M.P.H.; and Michael P. Pignone, M.D., M.P.H.

New members are appointed to replace members who have completed their terms. This year's appointees replace the following outgoing Task Force members: Joy Melnikow, M.D., M.P.H.; Carolina Reyes, M.D., M.P.H.; and Timothy J. Wilt, M.D., M.P.H. The USPSTF congratulates and thanks these outgoing members for their years of service and positive contributions to the Task Force's mission.

The new Task Force members bring a range of expertise in prevention and evidence-based medicine that will help the Task Force continue its mission of improving clinical preventive care for all Americans. Dr. Phillips' work in family medicine includes extensive experience teaching medical students and residents, as well as a proven ability to communicate complex issues in plain language. Dr. Pignone, an internist, has a wealth of expertise in systematic evidence reviews and analytical decisionmaking, the basis of the Task Force's work. Dr. García's background in obstetrics and gynecology has included work to improve women's health and prevent health disparities, helping him bridge the divides between the academic study of health, public health efforts, and community-based medicine.

2012 Announcements

1/11/12 Brief and White Paper From AHRQ: Complex Patients and the PCMH

AHRQ has produced a decisionmaker brief and white paper that discuss barriers and potential solutions for providing care to patients with complex needs within the patient-centered medical home (PCMH).

The decisionmaker brief “Ensuring That Patient-Centered Medical Homes Effectively Serve Patients With Complex Health Needs” offers specific strategies to help primary care practices, especially smaller ones, better deliver services to all patients, specifically those with the most complex health needs.

The white paper “Coordinating Care for Adults With Complex Care Needs in the Patient-Centered Medical Home: Challenges and Solutions” discusses current barriers but also offers a more detailed look at strategies that are needed to help primary care practices perform as effective medical homes to coordinate such services for patients with complex care needs. Five innovative programs are profiled, focusing on serving patients well, while offering insights on ways decisionmakers and researchers can facilitate the path to primary care transformation for practices who wish to do the same.

You can access the brief and white paper by visiting the following links:

These and other white papers and decisionmaker briefs are available by visiting www.pcmh.ahrq.gov. You will find topics such as improving evaluations of the PCMH, care coordination, the medical neighborhood, health information technology, and patient engagement, as well as a new guide for organizations that want to develop or improve a practice facilitation program for primary care quality improvement. Additionally, the Web site contains a searchable database of approximately 1,000 articles relating to the PCMH that is updated several times a year.

1/30/12 Scientific Director, U.S. Preventive Services Task Force

Want to play a role in shaping U.S. health care?

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) presents a unique opportunity to influence the future of evidence-based medicine in clinical preventive services. AHRQ seeks a senior level clinician to serve as the Scientific Director of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). This is an opportunity to improve the health of all Americans by supporting the USPSTF in making evidence-based recommendations on clinical preventive care. The Scientific Director provides a vital link between AHRQ and the USPSTF, sharing valuable guidance on a process that shapes clinical decisionmaking in our country. The candidate provides overall scientific leadership and direction to the USPSTF, working closely with its leaders, and is responsible for directing a team of dedicated medical professionals. The Scientific Director will also lead the development and implementation of a comprehensive national program of research related to clinical prevention.

Candidates must possess an M.D., D.O., doctoral level nursing degree, or be a physician assistant with a doctoral level degree. All candidates must have experience in prevention and primary care. This position is located at AHRQ's headquarters in Rockville, MD.

For more information on this position and an application, please visit:
M.D./D.O.: http://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/302462000
P.A.: http://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/304717000
Nurse: http://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/304716800

Please share this announcement with your colleagues.

2/7/12 AHRQ Announces Appointment of New Members to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) announced today the addition of four new experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine to serve as members of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF): Linda Ciofu Baumann, Ph.D., R.N.; Mark H. Ebell, M.D., M.S.; Jessica Herzstein, M.D., M.P.H.; and Douglas K. Owens, M.D., M.S. The new members were appointed with guidance from USPSTF Chair Dr. Virginia Moyer and Co-Vice Chairs Drs. Michael LeFevre and Albert Siu. The new members will each serve 4-year terms.

AHRQ appoints new members to replace those who have completed their terms. This year's new members replace outgoing Task Force members George Isham, M.D., M.S.; Rosanne Leipzig, M.D., Ph.D.; Bernadette Melnyk, Ph.D., R.N., C.P.N.P./P.M.H.N.P.; and J. Sanford Schwartz, M.D., M.B.A. AHRQ and the USPSTF congratulate and thank these outgoing members for their many positive contributions to the work of the Task Force in evidence-based preventive medicine.

The USPSTF is an independent, volunteer panel of 16 private-sector experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine that makes recommendations about preventive services such as screenings, counseling, or preventive medications. Its recommendations empower patients, their families, and their primary care providers in making informed decisions about prevention. More information on the Task Force is available at www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org.

AHRQ, whose mission is to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans, provides administrative, research, technical, and dissemination support to the USPSTF through the Agency's Prevention and Chronic Care Portfolio. More information on AHRQ and the nomination of Task Force members is available at www.ahrq.gov/clinic/tfnominfo.htm.

2/29/12 Register for the 2012 National Health Promotion Summit—April 10–11

The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research are hosting the 2012 National Health Promotion Summit, “Prevention. Promotion. Progress,” on April 10–11, 2012, in Washington, DC. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, and Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Susan Dentzer are confirmed to speak at the event. Student scholarships are available. Please:

Join us at the Summit. Register here: http://www.aptrweb.org/2012summit/registration.html.
Help promote the Summit. Please use the #HealthSummit hashtag, find sample tweets below, or forward this email.
Add the Summit Web Badge to your Web site: http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/connect/webBadge.aspx.

Sample Tweets:

Register Now: 2012 National Health Promotion Summit, April 10–11 in DC:
Registration for the 2012 Nat'l Health Promotion Summit is now open! Student scholarships available http://www.aptrweb.org/2012summit.html
#pubhealth professional? Join us for the 2012 National Health Promotion Summit April 10–11, 2012.
ATTENTION #pubhealth Students: Scholarships are available for the 2012 #HealthSummit in DC
@SGRegina and Secretary Sebelius will speak at the 2012 #HealthSummit. Are you attending? http://bit.ly/xtt2S4<
Have you seen who's headlining the #HealthSummit? Check it out: http://bit.ly/x794RX. Register now: http://bit.ly/AkBPiT

2/29/12 New AHRQ Release: Early Evidence on the Patient-Centered Medical Home

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is pleased to announce the release of “Early Evidence on the Patient-Centered Medical Home.” This white paper was prepared in collaboration with our partners at Mathematica Policy Research and summarizes findings from early evaluations of the patient-centered medical home (PCMH). It also offers concrete suggestions for improving the evidence base about the PCMH through more rigorous evaluations.

The American Journal of Managed Care recently published a concise version of the paper, which can be viewed at http://www.ajmc.com/publications/issue/2012/2012-2-vol18-n2/Early-Evaluations-of-the-Medical-Home-Building-on-a-Promising-Start. In addition, an expanded version of the white paper that provides extensive methodological details will be released in late spring 2012.

AHRQ also provides resources to help strengthen future research on the PCMH and build a solid evidence base. These resources include a brief for decisionmakers, “Improving Evaluations of the Medical Home,” which describes the importance of commissioning effective evaluations of the PCMH and how this can be achieved. A second resource, “Building the Evidence Base for the Medical Home: What Sample and Sample Size Do Studies Need?,” provides further information for researchers and evaluators about why evaluations of the medical home should account for clustering of patients within practices, how to do this, and what samples of patients and practices are needed for studies to achieve adequate statistical power.

Additional white papers, briefs, and a searchable index of almost 1,000 citations are also available at www.pcmh.ahrq.gov.

3/7/12 Efforts to Revitalize U.S. Primary Care Promotes International Dialogue

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is pleased to announce the publication of a journal supplement devoted to the 2011 AHRQ-sponsored conference “International Learning on Increasing the Value and Effectiveness of Primary Care.”

Leading thinkers, researchers, and implementers from Australia, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, as well as a delegation from the United States, convened with the goal of proposing a policy roadmap for the United States to revitalize its primary care system.

The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine is releasing today a supplement that includes an introductory commentary by David Meyers, M.D., Director of AHRQ's Center for Primary Care, Prevention, and Clinical Partnerships. Dr. Meyers describes the dialogue as “exceedingly rich and diverse.” Dr. Meyers also writes, “Every country had a unique story to tell and there appeared to be no one right way to build a robust primary care system. Almost every delegation at some time during the conference bemoaned the shortcomings of their system and experiences—reminding us all that health care reform is an iterative journey and not a magical one-time burst of transformation.” Bob Phillips of the Robert Graham Center contributed an overall summary of the conference, and each of the international delegations contributed an article addressing and challenging current models of primary care, system and community infrastructure, quality and safety, health system change and sustainability, and financing and incentives for primary care.

To read the supplement, visit http://www.jabfm.org/content/25/Suppl_1.toc?etoc. To view the full conference agenda and videos of the main sessions, visit AHRQ's Web site at http://ahrq.hhs.gov/research/intlprimconf.htm.

4/4/12 Register for AHRQ's Primary Care Practice Facilitation Forum

Learning Opportunity — Register for Upcoming Webinar!

Hiring and Training Practice Facilitators
Wednesday, April 11, 12:30–2:00 p.m., EDT
Save the Date and Register Below!

This Webinar is the second in a series on setting up a practice facilitation program.

Key issues to be addressed include: What should you look for when you are hiring a facilitator? What type of training do facilitators need to be effective?

Please join us to discuss the core competencies needed by facilitators and the various staffing models used by existing facilitation programs, as well as approaches and strategies for training your facilitators.

Webinar registration link: https://mathematicampr.webex.com/mathematicampr/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=664008699.

For more information about primary care practice facilitation and AHRQ's new how-to guide on developing and running a practice facilitation program, please visit www.pcmh.ahrq.gov.

4/10/12 AHRQ Seeks Nomination of New Members to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) welcomes nominations for new members to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). Each year, AHRQ selects new members to replace those members who are completing their appointments. Qualified individuals may self-nominate or receive a nomination from others by visiting www.ahrq.gov/clinic/tfnominfo.htm.

Task Force members volunteer their time and are appointed by the Director of AHRQ to serve 4-year terms. The appointment process is one way that AHRQ fulfills its congressionally mandated role to support the Task Force. Candidates for the Task Force are experts in the critical evaluation of research and in the methods of evidence and national leaders in the fields of clinical prevention, health promotion, and primary health care. They are also experts in the implementation of evidence-based recommendations. Many members have clinical experience in primary health care, while others provide expertise in methodology. AHRQ particularly encourages nominations of women, members of minority populations, and persons with disabilities.

The USPSTF is an independent group of national experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine that works to improve the health of all Americans by making evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services such as screenings, counseling services, or preventive medications. More information on the Task Force is available at www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org.

AHRQ's Prevention and Care Management Portfolio provides ongoing administrative, research, technical, and dissemination support to the USPSTF. More information is available at http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/prevenix.htm.

5/4/12 AHRQ Seeks Nomination of New Members to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force

As a reminder, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) welcomes nominations for new members to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). Each year, AHRQ selects new members to replace those members who are completing their appointments. Nominations for consideration for appointments in January 2013 are due by May 15. Nominations are accepted all year round, and those received after May 15 will be considered for 2014. Qualified individuals may self-nominate or receive a nomination from others by visiting www.ahrq.gov/clinic/tfnominfo.htm.

The USPSTF is an independent group of national experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine that works to improve the health of all Americans by making evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services such as screenings, counseling services, or preventive medications. More information on the Task Force is available at www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org.

5/11/12 Register for AHRQ's Practice Facilitation for Primary Care Transformation Webinar

We are very excited to announce an upcoming Webinar—the third in a series of four Webinars on Practice Facilitation as one approach to primary care improvement. The Webinars are based on AHRQ's Practice Facilitation manual.

Date: Wednesday, May 30, 12:30–2:00 p.m., EDT

Title: Designing and Evaluating Your Facilitation Work

Description: In this Webinar, presenters will tackle key questions in designing practice facilitation programs and evaluating their effectiveness. These questions include:

What are emerging “best practices” in practice facilitation program designs?
What are the essential elements of a facilitation intervention?
How do you create an internally consistent program?
How do you evaluate its effectiveness?
What do you need to know about internal quality improvement processes for your program?

Select Implementing the PCMH: Practice Facilitation for more useful Practice Facilitation Resources from AHRQ.

5/23/12 AHRQ Recruiting Senior Coordinator to Support U.S. Preventive Services Task Force

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) seeks a senior coordinator for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). This is an opportunity to improve the health of all Americans by supporting the USPSTF in making evidence-based recommendations on clinical preventive care. The candidate will provide oversight, critical problem solving, and quality assurance for projects involving multiple partners and complex procedures. The Senior Coordinator will work closely with the USPSTF Scientific Director and the team at AHRQ to increase the transparency and efficiency of the USPSTF's processes while overseeing all of the technical, logistical, and dissemination support AHRQ provides the USPSTF. The Senior Coordinator will also cultivate partnerships with stakeholders in the prevention and primary care community, including researchers, health professionals, advocates, and health care decisionmakers. To learn more about the USPSTF, please go to its Web site.

All candidates must have experience managing teams and complex projects, along with providing administrative as well as logistical support to scientific programs. This position is located at AHRQ's headquarters in Rockville, MD.

For more information on this position and an application, please visit: http://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/316496600.

Applications are due by Friday, June 8.

7/16/12 New AHRQ Handbook Helps Practices Implement Interactive Preventive Health Records

A new handbook from AHRQ offers practical guidance on the implementation of interactive preventive health records (IPHRs). Based on the lessons learned from implementation using electronic health records (EHRs) from three different vendors at 14 different practices, “An Interactive Preventive Care Record: A Handbook for Using Patient-Centered Personal Health Records to Promote Prevention” provides practical steps for health care professionals to follow when integrating IPHRs as components of EHRs.

In an article, “Randomized Trial of an Interactive Preventive Health Record to Enhance the Delivery of Recommended Care,” published in the Annals of Family Medicine, the authors found that IPHR users were more likely to be up to date on all preventive services compared with nonusers, especially in the areas of screening tests and immunizations. The study findings showed that an IPHR and similar systems can improve important patient outcomes, such as the delivery of evidence-based preventive care. Researchers recommend that attention is needed to ensure future personal health records can deliver higher levels of functionality, similar to the IPHR, and that a greater number of patients and clinicians actively use the systems.

The IPHR was developed and studied in three AHRQ-funded projects to better understand how to broadly implement and disseminate patient-centered information systems throughout primary care. These three projects build upon one another to show the development and effect of the IPHR tool on patient outcomes, the ability for it to be successfully adopted into multiple and varied EHRs and health care settings, and how it can be integrated into the primary care workflow for an entire practice's patient population.

Visit healthit.ahrq.gov/KRIST-IPHR-Guide-0612.pdf (PDF, 576 KB) for the handbook. Visit http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22778119 for the Annals of Family Medicine abstract. For more information on AHRQ's IPHR projects, please visit http://healthit.ahrq.gov/KristSuccessStory2010.pdf (PDF, 5.5 MB).

8/30/12 Funding and Evaluating Primary Care Practice Facilitation Programs Webinar

Register for an AHRQ Webinar:
Funding and Evaluating Primary Care Practice Facilitation Programs

*Date:*	Friday, September 28, 12:30–2:00 p.m., EDT
*Register:*	Funding and Evaluating Primary Care Practice Facilitation Programs
*Speakers:*	Lyndee Knox, LA Net Hunter Gatewood, San Francisco Health Plan Bruce Baskerville, University of Waterloo Michael Parchman, MacColl Center for Health Innovation James Mold, Oklahoma Physicians Resource/Research Network

Description: In this Webinar, presenters will address questions about funding a practice facilitation (PF) program, including creating a sustainable business plan. They will also discuss approaches for evaluating the outcomes of the work done by facilitators. Questions to be addressed include:

What are potential funding sources for PF programs? What are some effective strategies for approaching funders?
What is included in a business plan for a PF program?
What types of line items should be included in a budget for a PF program?
What are the various reasons for evaluating PF programs? How are evaluations carried out?

This is the final Webinar in a series of four based on AHRQ's Practice Facilitation manual. Slides and audio from the previous three Webinars are available on the “PCPF Updates” page of AHRQ's PCMH Resource Center.

9/11/12 AHRQ Awards Eight Institutions to Support Collaborative Centers for Primary Care Practice-Based Research

The Agency for Health Care Research and Quality has announced grant awards to eight institutions to support collaborative centers for primary care practice-based research. “Funding these Centers will help to inform the delivery and organization of primary care and to create communities of learning among primary care practices, in which they may improve health care quality, patient safety, and effectiveness of care,” said David Meyers, Director of AHRQ's Center for Primary Care, Prevention, and Clinical Partnerships.

For over a decade, AHRQ has invested in primary care practice-based research networks (PBRNs)—groups of ambulatory medical practices devoted principally to the primary care of patients that join to conduct and disseminate research to improve the practice of primary care. While AHRQ has supported PBRNs with as few as 15 primary care practices, each Center created through this program has a minimum of 120 member practices and several have more than 500.

Many of the Centers are collaborations between smaller well-established PBRNs. By leveraging common resources, these Centers are expected to improve productivity and to develop the ability to plan and conduct independent research projects more quickly and produce results that are more generalizable than they would as separate PBRNs.

To read more about the new Centers, please visit http://www.ahrq.gov/research/rescenters.htm.

To learn more about primary care Practice-based Research Networks, please visit www.PBRN.AHRQ.gov.

9/21/12 Vermont Blueprint for Health: Working Together for Better Care: Free Webcast

Webcast: Linkages Among Primary Care, Public Health, and Clinical Community Resources

Join the AHRQ Health Care Innovations Exchange for a free Webcast.

When: Tuesday, September 25, 2012, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., ET.

This Webcast will feature a video presentation about successful linkages among primary care, public health, and clinical community resources in the state of Vermont. Vermont's Blueprint for Health program provides comprehensive, coordinated care while improving health outcomes and reducing costs.

The video presentation will be followed by a panel discussion during which Vermont program staff will discuss implementation challenges and potential solutions related to linking clinical care and community resources.

Register online: http://goo.gl/Au06T.

For more information: Visit http://www.innovations.ahrq.gov/content.aspx?id=3640 to read the innovation profile about the Vermont Blueprint for Health initiative featured in the Webcast.

Top of Page

2011 Announcements

1/3/11 Surgeon General Invites Public Comments on Draft National Prevention Strategy

AHRQ's Prevention and Chronic Care team is pleased to be able to share this invitation from the U.S. Surgeon General to provide public comment on the draft recommendations for the National Prevention Strategy.

The National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council (National Prevention Council) was created by the Affordable Care Act and is in the process of developing a first-ever National Prevention Strategy. To learn more about the Council, visit http://www.healthcare.gov/nationalpreventioncouncil .

Draft Recommendations (PDF File), which are overarching priorities with a focus on communities, have been posted online for public comment at: http://www.hhs.gov/news/reports/nphps.html. Comments will be accepted until January 13, 2011.

Together we can work towards building a healthy and fit nation.

3/23/11 AHRQ Funding Opportunity Announcement: Centers for Excellence in Clinical Preventive Services

AHRQ has released a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) titled Research Centers for Excellence in Clinical Preventive Service (P01) to foster innovative, synergistic, and targeted research on clinical preventive services. The FOA solicits applications from eligible organizations to become a Research Center for Excellence in Clinical Preventive Services with a focus on one of three programmatic areas: 1) patient safety, 2) health equity, or 3) health care system implementation.

Essential Information:

Request for Application (RFA) Number: RFA-HS-11-005
Eligible Applicants:
- Public or non-profit private institutions (i.e., university, college, or faith-based or community-based organizations)
- Units of local or State government
- Eligible agencies of the Federal government
- Indian/Native American Tribal Governments and designated Organizations.
Funds Available: $4.5 million in FY2011 to fund three Centers
Budget: $1,500,000 annually for each year of project period
Project Period: 3 years

Key Dates:

Release Date: March 11, 2011
Letters of Intent Receipt Date(s): April 29, 2011
Application Receipt Date(s): May 23, 2011
Peer Review Date(s): Approximately 2 months after receipt date
Earliest Anticipated Start Date: Approximately 2 months after peer review date

For more information on this FOA, please use the following link: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-HS-11-005.html.

3/31/11 AHRQ's Electronic Preventive Services Selector Tool: Feedback Requested

AHRQ is interested in your feedback about how the ePSS (electronic Preventive Services Selector) could be improved in format and functionality. We are also interested in your input regarding content that could be added to facilitate implementation of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations.

Experienced and novice users of the Web-based ePSS are currently being asked to participate in an online survey conducted by ForeSee Results, Inc. A survey will be conducted in the near future with ePSS users who download it to their mobile devices.

Your input is very important to us. We hope that you will access the Web-based version of the ePSS at http://epss.ahrq.gov/ePSS/index.jsp, use the selector, participate in the survey (it will appear after 2 or 3 page clicks), and encourage your colleagues to do the same.

AHRQ's ePSS is a quick, hands-on tool designed to help primary care clinicians identify and offer the screening, counseling, and preventive medication services that are appropriate for their patients based on the current, evidence-based recommendations of the USPSTF. The ePSS can be searched by specific patient characteristics, such as age, sex, and selected behavioral risk factors and is available both as a Web-based selector and as a downloadable PDA application.

4/1/11 Call for Papers on Integrating Primary Care and Public Health

AHRQ is pleased to announce that we are co-sponsoring with HRSA, CDC, and the NIH a special journal supplement on primary care and public health.

The American Journal of Preventive Medicine (AJPM) and American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) will publish a joint theme issue that addresses the question: “How do we improve population health and promote health equity through the effective integration of primary care and public health?”

Papers are invited in the following areas:

Science—What factors promote integration? How has integration measurably impacted population health and health equity?
Education—How can integration be promoted during professional training and practice?
Practice—What are promising practices for integration? What are incentives and disincentives to integration?
Policy—What policies are effective in promoting integration? What are opportunities to promote integration in the Affordable Care Act?

Primary care is the provision of integrated, accessible health care services by clinicians who are accountable for addressing a large majority of personal health care needs, developing a sustained partnership with patients, and practicing in the context of family and community (Institute of Medicine. Primary Care: America's Health in a New Era. 1996).

Public health is an organized activity of society to promote, protect, improve, and, when necessary, restore the health of individuals, specified groups, or the entire population (Last JM. A Dictionary of Public Health. 2006).

We encourage submissions coauthored by professionals in both fields, and we encourage authors to consider the following manuscript categories: Research and Practice, Briefs, Systematic Reviews, Current Issues, Analytic Essays, and Framing Health Matters.

All manuscripts will undergo the standard peer review process by AJPH and AJPM editors and peer referees as defined by AJPH and AJPM policy.

Manuscripts are due to AJPH on August 1, 2011 and should be submitted at http://ajph.edmgr.com.

For further information, please contact the guest editors at AJPH-AJPMPapers@hrsa.gov.

Guest Editors: Irene Dankwa-Mullan, MD, MPH, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health; Kaytura Felix, MD, Health Resources and Services Administration; Denise Koo, MD, MPH, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and Therese Miller, DrPH, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

6/7/11 New Brief Outlines Strategies to Put Patients at the Center of Primary Care

A new brief from AHRQ, The Patient-Centered Medical Home: Strategies to Put Patients at the Center of Primary Care, highlights opportunities to improve patient engagement in primary care. The brief focuses on involvement at three levels: the engagement of patients and families in their own care, in quality improvement activities in the primary care practice, and in the development and implementation of policy and research related to the patient-centered medical home (PCMH).

Strategies to Put Patients at the Center of Primary Care provides a clear and concise definition of the patient-centered medical home and outlines 6 strategies that can be used to support primary care practices in their efforts to engage patients and families.

This brief and other resources, including white papers and a searchable database of PCMH-related articles, is available from AHRQ's online PCMH Resource Center at www.pcmh.ahrq.gov.

7/7/11 New Grant Announcement on Tobacco and Low SES Women

A new grant announcement for an Office on Women's Health tobacco cessation and prevention program has been posted onto Grantsolutions.gov and Grants.gov. Two awards will be funded over a 2-year period, beginning in September 2011, to conduct activity that will help identify successful models to increase quit attempts and provide comprehensive, culturally and linguistically appropriate tobacco prevention and cessation services for low socio-economic status (SES) women of childbearing age, based on the “Public Health Service Clinical Practice Guideline: Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence.” Program-specific information on this announcement is provided below. Organizations interested in implementing a tobacco cessation and prevention program for low SES women are encouraged to apply.

Details:
Program Name: Sustainable Comprehensive Tobacco Cessation and Prevention Clinical Program for Low Socio-Economic Status Women of Childbearing Age

Due Date for Response: Friday, July 15, 2011

Catalogue for Domestic Assistance (CFDA) No. 93088 — Grants.gov

8/11/11 Two Open Job Postings in AHRQ's Center for Primary Care, Prevention, and Clinical Partnerships

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Center for Primary Care, Prevention, and Clinical Partnerships (CP3) has two open job postings. Both positions support the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). Questions regarding either position should be directed to Tess Miller (Therese.Miller@AHRQ.hhs.gov) or David Meyers (David.Meyers@AHRQ.hhs.gov).

Associate Scientific Director of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) (GS-0602-15): The Associate Scientific Director of the USPSTF will coordinate closely with the Scientific Director to ensure that AHRQ provides the highest quality scientific, technical, and administrative support to the independent USPSTF.
Medical Officer to Support the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (GS-0602-14): The Medical Officer will provide logistic and scientific support to the USPSTF.

To apply for the Associate Scientific Director position, select http://jobview.usajobs.gov/GetJob.aspx?JobID=101359992&JobTitle=Medical+Officer%2c+GS-0602-15&q=AHRQ&where=&brd=3876&vw=b&FedEmp=N&FedPub=Y&x=63&y=13&AVSDM=2011-08-02+08%3a43%3a00 here.

To apply for the Medical Officer position, select http://jobview.usajobs.gov/GetJob.aspx?JobID=101347301&JobTitle=Medical+Officer%2c+GS-0602-14&q=AHRQ&where=&brd=3876&vw=b&FedEmp=N&FedPub=Y&x=63&y=13&AVSDM=2011-08-02+00%3a03%3a00 here.

For more information about CP3, visit http://www.ahrq.gov/about/cp3/.

9/28/11 AHRQ Makes Grant Awards for the Redesign and Transformation of Primary Care Practice

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) believes that a robust primary care system is the foundation for an American health care system that delivers high-quality, affordable health care to all Americans.

In September 2011, AHRQ awarded four cooperative grants in response to a Request for Applications entitled “Infrastructure for Maintaining Primary Care Transformation (IMPaCT) — Support for Models of Multi-sector, State-level Excellence. ”The purpose of these grants is to support model State-level initiatives using primary care extension agents in small- and medium-sized independent primary care practices to assist with primary care redesign and transformation. These IMPaCT grants are targeted to support four successful, established programs that will serve as models to others:

HEROs: New Mexico's Health Extension as a Model for Primary Care Transformation (Principal Investigator, Arthur Kaufman, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center)
North Carolina IMPaCT: Advancing and Spreading Primary Care Transformation (Principal Investigator, Darren DeWalt, University of North Carolina)
PA SPREAD: Pennsylvania Spreading Primary Care Enhanced Delivery Infrastructure (Principal Investigator, Robert Gabbay, Pennsylvania State University Hershey College of Medicine)
Primary Care Extension in Oklahoma: An Evidence-Based Approach to Dissemination and Implementation (Principal Investigator, James Mold, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center)

“AHRQ's investment in the IMPaCT initiative is a first step toward building our capacity to provide a quality infrastructure that supports primary care practices in delivering high-quality, affordable, patient-centered care,” said David Meyers, M.D., Director of AHRQ's Center for Primary Care, Prevention, and Clinical Partnerships, where management for each project is organized. “These states represent national models and we are excited to be able to help them expand their efforts to more practices and to share their experience with the nation.”

Through its support of experienced State-level programs, and by requiring rigorous evaluation, these projects will provide AHRQ with multiple examples of how a national primary care health extension program could be built.

“Through this cooperative grant program, AHRQ will encourage program synthesis across the four grantees, with an emphasis on both sustainability and dissemination of lessons learned about primary care practice support,” said Michael Parchman, M.D., IMPaCT Project Officer. “The program is designed with a vigorous infrastructure: each of the four grantees will create State-level collaborations with three other States to assist them with their State-level primary care transformation effort. Thus, each project has the potential to serve as a model for future federal and State initiatives.”

Additionally, this funding is intended to further the expansion of existing programs, allowing primary care practices and the communities they serve to benefit immediately. For more information, contact Leilani Liggins at Leilani.Liggins@AHRQ.hhs.gov.

10/28/11 AHRQ Awards to Create Clinical Preventive Services Research Centers

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) awarded three 3-year grants totaling $4.5 million to support research in three centers that will focus on improving clinical preventive services and practices such as screening, counseling, and use of preventive medications for patients. The project will be led by three universities and includes a separate award for coordination and evaluation of the research.

The innovation for these centers is made possible through the Prevention and Public Health Fund, part of the Affordable Care Act, and is designed to expand and sustain the necessary capacity to prevent disease, detect it early, and manage conditions before they become severe. States and communities are also funded to acquire the resources they need to promote healthy living. Through this initiative, the National Prevention Strategy was established to bring together leaders across the government to establish priorities for the new frontiers of knowledge and implementation of preventive health.

Consistent with the National Prevention Strategy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, AHRQ planned a significant research effort to establish the Research Centers for Excellence in Clinical Preventive Services that are located in Chicago, Chapel Hill, NC, and Aurora, CO. The centers will serve to advance the national research agenda in clinical preventive services in three specific areas:

Health equity – to learn more about how to reduce disparities in the use of clinical preventives services.
Patient safety – to better understanding of risks and harms associated with clinical preventives services.
Health systems implementation – to study how primary care practices, public health resources, and the larger health care system can improve the delivery of evidence-based clinical preventive services.

“We know that preventing disease is the key to improving the health of all Americans, but we also know that there are some very serious gaps in clinical preventive services research,” said AHRQ Director Carolyn M. Clancy, M.D. “AHRQ's investment in these new research centers will help us find ways to enhance the quality of clinical preventive services.”

Each center will conduct research projects during the 3-year grant, including pilot and exploratory projects affecting children, the elderly, minorities, those with disabilities, and those who receive health care in rural and inner city settings.

The centers will be located at the following institutions:

Northwestern University, Chicago – Award: $1.4 million. The Center for Advancing Equity in Clinical Preventive Services will develop and test interventions to achieve equity in clinical preventive services by focusing on health literacy, health communication, quality improvement methods, and health information technology.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – Award: $1.5 million. The UNC Research Center for Excellence in Clinical Preventive Services will focus on research to improve patient safety and reduce potential harms to patients by improving the appropriate use of clinical preventive services in primary health care practices.
University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus – Award: $1.5 million. The Center for Excellence in Research in Implementation Science and Prevention will involve primary care and public health experts to conduct research on how to increase use of preventive health services within primary health care settings while meeting national public health goals.

In addition, Abt Associates, Cambridge, MA, has received an award to help coordinate and evaluate the research being conducted at the three centers. More information about AHRQ's Center for Primary Care, Prevention, and Clinical Partnerships is available at http://www.ahrq.gov/about/cp3/.

11/17/11 Facts and Stats Series: Size and Capacity of the U.S. Primary Care Workforce

To further inform policy discussions around the U.S. primary care workforce, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ's) Center for Primary Care, Prevention, and Clinical Partnerships has released the first two in a series of fact sheets to provide health care policy and decisionmakers with information on:

The primary care workforce in place currently in the United States.
Its capacity to care for the current U.S. population.
Needed growth in this workforce to accommodate population changes and expanded health insurance coverage.

The two fact sheets available now are:

“The Number of Practicing Primary Care Physicians in the United States,” which reports that, of the 624,434 physicians in the United States who spend the majority of their time in direct patient care, slightly less than one third are specialists in primary care.
“The Number of Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants Practicing Primary Care in the United States,” which estimates that in 2010, approximately 56,000 nurse practitioners and 30,000 physician assistants were practicing primary care in the United States.

AHRQ commissioned the Robert Graham Center—a nonpartisan primary care policy and analysis organization—to conduct a comprehensive primary care workforce analysis that includes secondary analyses of several workforce, population, and health outcome data sources.

During the coming months, AHRQ will release additional Primary Care Workforce Fact Sheets examining topics such as:

The distribution of the U.S. primary care workforce.
Patient panel sizes in primary care.
Primary care workforce needs due to changes in population growth, demographics, and other factors.

To view and bookmark the U.S. Primary Care Workforce Facts and Stats Series, go to: http://www.ahrq.gov/research/pcworkforce.htm.

12/2/11 AHRQ Funding Opportunity Announcement: Research Centers in Primary Care Practice-Based Research and Learning

AHRQ has released a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) soliciting Center Core grant (P30) applications from organizations with a demonstrated track record of success in conducting research in primary care practice-based research networks (PBRNs). Each Research Center will have at least 120 primary care member practices organized around shared resources and research infrastructure. These Centers will foster a highly collaborative, interdisciplinary research environment. AHRQ is particularly interested in supporting Center infrastructure that will accelerate both the generation of new knowledge and a community of learning for primary care practices to improve quality, patient safety, and effectiveness of care. AHRQ intends to publish future “rapid-cycle” FOAs describing research projects that will be limited to funded Centers because of the cohesive infrastructure required to respond to these rapid-cycle funding opportunities.

Essential Information:

Request for Application (RFA) Number: RFA-HS-12-002.
Eligible Applicants:
- Public or nonprofit private institutions (i.e., university, college, or faith-based or community-based organizations).
- Units of local or State government.
- Eligible agencies of the Federal government.
- Indian/Native American Tribal Governments and designated Organizations.
Funds Available: $600,000 total cost in FY2012 to support up to five awards. AHRQ plans to commit up to $3,000,000 over 5 years.
Budget: $120,000 annually for each year of project period.
Project Period: 5 years.

Key Dates:

Release Date: November 28, 2011.
Technical Assistance Call: December 20, 2011.
Letters of Intent Receipt Date(s): January 6, 2012.
Application Receipt Date(s): January 26, 2012.
Peer Review Date(s): Approximately 3 months after receipt date.
Earliest Anticipated Start Date: Approximately 3 to 4 months after peer review.

For more information on this FOA, please use the following link: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-HS-12-002.html.

12/14/11 AHRQ Research Strengthens HHS Strategic Framework on Multiple Chronic Conditions

This month marks the first anniversary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) release of its “Strategic Framework on Multiple Chronic Conditions,” a national roadmap for improving the health status of persons with multiple chronic conditions. In conjunction with this anniversary, AHRQ will publish early in 2012 a summary of the goals and outcomes of AHRQ's portfolio in this area. Launched in 2008, “Optimizing Prevention and Health Care Management for the Complex Patient” funds 18 exploratory and developmental grants.

It has been estimated that more than a quarter of all Americans—and two out of three older Americans—have multiple chronic conditions, including physical and behavioral health problems. As the U.S. population ages, the number of people living with multiple chronic conditions continues to grow. Treatment for these complex patients accounts for an estimated 66% of the nation's health care expenditures. Meanwhile, health research continues to focus primarily on single conditions, and most health care guidelines focus on the simplest cases (for example, anticoagulation in a patient with uncomplicated atrial fibrillation). Most preventive services recommendations target healthy patients and lack guidance on the timing and appropriateness of services for patients with multiple chronic conditions. This combination of factors is widening the gap between the size of the multiple chronic conditions population and the availability of evidence-based prevention and treatment approaches to serve them.

Patients and health care providers alike are burdened by this situation. The interactions of diseases make it difficult for providers to offer the best possible care for complex patients. These patients may end up with unnecessarily complicated medical regimens and be at increased risk for the harms of treatment or preventive services and less likely than healthy individuals to benefit from them.

The AHRQ grants aim to improve understanding about:

Which interventions provide the greatest benefit to patients with multiple conditions
How the safety and effectiveness of specific interventions may be affected by comorbid conditions
How interventions may need to be modified for specific patient populations

The findings from these grants will help clinicians (particularly in primary care) better integrate care for patients with multiple chronic conditions, help patients make more informed health care decisions, and help policymakers identify better ways to measure and promote quality care for these complex patients.

AHRQ's efforts directly help to implement a key goal of the HHS Strategic Framework: to increase clinical, community, and patient-centered health research. The Strategic Framework and related efforts already are making significant differences at the level of individuals with multiple chronic conditions and their families—lives are being changed positively and, at the same time, HHS is optimistic about how this approach will help in reducing the enormous costs, both personal and financial, that are caused by multiple chronic conditions.

For more information on the HHS Strategic Framework, visit http://www.hhs.gov/ash/initiatives/mcc/mcc_framework.pdf.

For a full inventory of HHS programs, activities, and initiatives on improving the health of individuals with multiple chronic conditions, visit http://www.hhs.gov/ash/initiatives/mcc/mcc-inventory-20111018.pdf.

Partners' Call: HHS Strategic Framework on Multiple Chronic Conditions

TODAY
Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at 1:00 p.m., EST

Please join HHS officials from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Administration on Aging, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to mark the 1-year anniversary of the HHS Strategic Framework on Multiple Chronic Conditions and hear about new data, programmatic results, and important developments in this area.

When: Wednesday, December 14, 2011 from 1:00–2:00 p.m., EST

Where: Dial-in Number: 1-888-831-8963 (Participant Passcode: 8067263)

Please RSVP to: mcc@hhs.gov

Also Coming in 2012 on Complex Care Patients

On Thursday, January 19, from 12:00–1:00 p.m., AHRQ's Prevention/Care Management Portfolio will present a Web seminar on “Coordinating Care for Adults With Complex Care Needs in the Patient-Centered Medical Home: Challenges and Solutions.” The seminar will be introduced by Dr. Tess Miller, who leads the Prevention/Care Management Portfolio. The presenter is Dr. Eugene Rich, Senior Researcher at Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. A question and answer session will be moderated by Dr. Michael Parchman, Director of the Practice-based Research Networks Initiative and Senior Advisor for Primary Care at AHRQ.

12/29/11 Brief and White Paper From AHRQ: Improving PCMH Evidence and Evaluations

AHRQ has produced a decisionmaker brief and white paper that offer suggestions on how to improve the quality of current PCMH evidence and evaluations.

The decisionmaker brief “Improving Evaluations of the Medical Home” offers a concise description for decisionmakers of why and how to commission effective evaluations of medical home demonstrations. It provides insights into what outcomes to assess, why to include control practices, and why not accounting for clustering can doom an evaluation.

The white paper “Building the Evidence Base for the Medical Home: What Sample and Sample Size Do Studies Need?” provides information about how to determine the effect sizes a given study can expect to detect, identifies the number of patients and practices required to detect policy-relevant, achievable effects, and demonstrates how evaluators can select the outcomes and types of patients included in analyses to improve a study's ability to detect true effects.

Both resources can be found on AHRQ's PCMH Web site, www.pcmh.ahrq.gov, or visit:

Other white papers and decisionmaker briefs available on the Web site address topics such as care coordination, the medical neighborhood, health information technology, and patient engagement. Upcoming resources include a review of the current evidence on the medical home and a “how-to” guide for organizations, which provide practice facilitation support for primary care transformation. Additionally, the Web site contains a searchable database of approximately 1,000 articles relating to the PCMH that is updated several times a year.

Please share both resources with colleagues, and have them visit www.pcmh.ahrq.gov for similar products.

Current as of February 2013

Internet Citation:

Prevention and Chronic Care: Announcement Details. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/ppip/announcedetails.htm