Help Page
The topics below are available to help you use the Health Care Innovations Exchange Web site effectively.
Visit the FAQ page for additional assistance.
Innovation Profiles and Attempts
Innovation Profiles describe innovations that have achieved some level of success. Innovation Profiles contain five
sections:
- Snapshot - An overview of the innovation which includes a brief summary of the key elements of the innovation and the
impact or results achieved, in addition to the developing organization/s, patient population, date first implemented, and
evidence rating.
- What They Did - A description of the key problem(s) that the innovation addresses, the population affected by
the innovation, and any pertinent quality measures. This section includes citations and innovator contact information.
- Did it Work? - A description of the overall results of the innovation, a summary of key results with supporting
data, and a rating of the strength of evidence.
Select to learn more about the evidence rating.
- How They Did It - A description of the context of the innovation (type of organization, environmental factors,
local impetus for the innovation), the planning and development process, information on staffing and financial costs of
the innovation, funding sources, and links to related resources.
- Adoption Considerations – Advice from the innovator regarding what is needed to get started with and to sustain
the innovation. This section also includes other considerations, lessons, and information about its use by other
organizations if applicable.
Innovation Attempts describe projects that did not succeed as planned because they could not be implemented or
sustained, did not achieve desired results, or had unexpected negative consequences. Attempts are presented for health
care organizations to learn from and build upon. Innovation Attempts contain four sections:
- Snapshot – An overview of the attempt which includes a brief summary of the key elements of the innovation
and the results, in addition to the developing organization/s, patient population, and date first implemented.
- What They Did - A description of the key problem(s) that the innovation addresses, the population affected
by the innovation, and any pertinent quality measures. This section includes citations and innovator contact information.
- Did It Work? – A description of the overall results of the innovation with a summary of key results with
supporting data.
- What They Learned - A summary of lessons learned by the innovator, with an emphasis on the challenges that
arose and what the innovator might have done differently.
Jump To links provide easy access to sections within the profile or attempt.
The Comments Tab provides users with the ability to comment on an Innovation Profile or Attempt.
Each innovation profile and innovation attempt provides a printable view via the
Print link (
Print) and the ability to send a recipient a link to the
profile via the E-mail link (
E-mail Link).
Submitting an Innovation
To submit a tool, send an e-mail to info@innovations.ahrq.gov with the following information:
- Name of the tool
- Developer organization
- Sponsor organization
- Hyperlink to tool
- Brief description
- Release date
Please include your name and telephone number so that we can follow up with you for more information if needed.
Navigating the Web Site
The Innovations Exchange Web site can be viewed using 4 different text sizes. To increase the text size, select the button
on the top right banner for the desired text size.
To narrow your search results, use the Narrow by Subjects feature from within the search results page.
Each innovation profile, attempt, and QualityTool provides a printable view via the Print
link ( Print) located on the top right side of the screen.
Select the Print icon for a printable view in a new window. Select Print again to open a Print box where
you can select local printer settings and print the desired content.
The suggested citation format for an Innovation Profile or Attempt is:
AHRQ Health Care Innovations Exchange. Innovation Profile/Attempt: [insert title of profile/attempt] ([insert developer organization name]).
In: AHRQ Health Care Innovations Exchange [Web site]. Rockville (MD): [cited YYYY Mon DD].
Available: http://www.innovations.ahrq.gov.
Example: AHRQ Health Care Innovations Exchange. Innovation Profile: E-mail Enhances Families' Communication With and
Access to Pediatrician (Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh). In: AHRQ Health Care Innovations Exchange [Web site].
Rockville (MD): [cited 2008 Jul 31]. Available: http://www.innovations.ahrq.gov.
The suggested citation format for a QualityTools Tool Summary is:
QualityTools. Tool summary: [insert title of summary] ([insert developer organization name]). In: QualityTools
[Web site]. Rockville (MD): [cited YYYY Mon DD]. Available: http://www.innovations.ahrq.gov/qualitytools.
Example: QualityTools. Tool summary: Child Health Guide (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality). In:
QualityTools [Web site]. Rockville (MD): [cited 2008 Jul 31]. Available: http://www.innovations.ahrq.gov/qualitytools.
Subscribing to Updates
To sign up, go to Stay Connected and select "Sign up for E-mail Updates".
Subscribers receive announcements when biweekly issues are published on the
Innovations Exchange and when Web events are scheduled.
To cancel your subscription, go to Stay Connected and select the Manage your
subscriptions/Unsubscribe link; then enter your e-mail address and select the Unsubscribe box. You will receive
a message confirming your request.
Linking to the Health Care Innovations Exchange
The Innovations Exchange encourages health care Web sites to establish links from their pages to
www.innovations.ahrq.gov. If you would like to link to this site, please:
Please note that all external links from commercial sites to our Federal Government site should be clearly
identified. Our Agency cannot endorse, nor appear to endorse, commercial services or products. Links should not
be displayed in any manner that would imply an endorsement.
The Web pages of the Health Care Innovations Exchange are best presented by the current versions of Microsoft
Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari. These browsers render the site pages in nearly the same
way. This site works with all browsers. The same content is available in every browser but the display of that
content may differ according to the capabilities of each browser. The Health Care Innovations Exchange also
recommends disabling pop-up blockers, since some content appears in pop-up windows. The following browsers have
been tested for compatibility with the Health Care Innovations Exchange site:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 (Windows)
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 (Windows)
- Mozilla Firefox 3.5 (Windows)
- Safari 4 (Macintosh)
The Search feature is structured to perform a faceted search, which enables users to combine text searches, taxonomy
term filtering, and other search criteria to enhance the navigation experience and produce better search results.
The Innovations Exchange taxonomy is a classification system for attaching labels (a.k.a. tags or meta-data) to the
innovation profiles and other content on the site so that it may be browsed and searched according to these descriptors
in addition to the text of the profile itself. This allows for more refined navigation through the site content and
helps users find relevant content more easily. The taxonomy classifies key aspects of each innovative activity according
to dimensions of most relevance to users. These aspects make up the axes (a.k.a. categories) of the taxonomy; an axis
may include both general and more detailed levels as defined in parent-child relationships (e.g., major disease
categories and specific diseases are part of one axis).
Main Search Engine
The main search engine is accessed via the Search box on the home page or in the masthead. It is not case-sensitive.
It operates by seeking matches with search terms from two distinct types of data pulled from the contents of the
Innovations Exchange: a layer of semantic metadata associated with a content piece, and the exact matches of words
or phrases in the text. Semantic matches are those based on the meaning of the search terms and the concepts they
describe, allowing the user to find pertinent information without having to search for all synonyms of a given search
term. To supplement these semantic results, the search engine provides content that contains exact matches to the
search terms.
- By default, search results display a short summary of the content below the title of each search result.
Select Hide Summaries to display results with content titles only.
- As search terms are typed into the Search box, the search engine displays commonly searched terms
(i.e., auto-fill suggestions) that begin with the content entered, in a drop-down format. Selecting a
suggested word or phrase performs a search on that term.
Browse by Subject allows the user to browse the Innovations Exchange collection by main topics or subject areas,
and can be accessed either from the horizontal navigation bar or the module on the home page. Each subject lists
relevant subcategories and the numbers of Innovations and QualityTools available on the Web site for each subcategory.
"What’s this?" links describe the types of Innovations and QualityTools that can be browsed for each
subject area.
To browse by subject:
- Go to the Browse by Subject page.
- Select the subject of interest to view Innovations and QualityTools.
- Options to sort by Newest first (default) or by Relevance are provided on the results page.
Sorting by relevance removes the date ranking.
- By default, results display a short summary of the content below the title of each result. Select Hide
Summaries to display results with content titles only.
- Results include the number of Innovation "Attempts". Select the "Show Innovation Attempts only" check box to view results that are only Innovation Attempts. This list can also be sorted by date and relevance.
Narrow by Subjects
Narrow by Subjects provides the user with the ability to narrow Search and/or Browse results to find specific Innovations
or QualityTools of interest. This feature can be accessed on the left navigation column on the Search and/or Browse results
page, or from the Innovations & QualityTools page. You may select multiple subjects to narrow results by.
- About Subjects describes the subject areas that Innovations and QualityTools are organized into.
- Select Clear Selections to clear the terms used to narrow results and to return to the full list of results.
To narrow by subjects:
- In the Narrow by Subjects column, select the main subject(s) of interest to view the topics under each subject.
You can also select the "+" sign to expand the list of topics.
- Select hyperlinked topics to narrow down your results further in each subject area.
Last updated: September 19, 2012.
