Demonstrating the Value of Health Information Technology

The summary for the Demonstrating the Value of Health Information Technology grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

Demonstrating the Value of Health Information Technology: The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) announces the availability of research grants to assess the value derived from the adoption, diffusion, and utilization of health information technology (HIT) to improve patient safety and quality of care. AHRQ is seeking proposals that elucidate the value of HIT from a variety of perspectives, including patients, providers, purchasers, payers, policymakers, or other important stakeholders and decision makers. The main objective of this RFA is to support projects that will increase our knowledge and understanding of the value of HIT, which includes clinical, safety, quality, financial, organizational, effectiveness, efficiency, or other direct or indirect benefits that may be derived from the use of HIT in the delivery of health care. The findings from this initiative should provide these stakeholders with information needed to make better and more informed clinical, purchasing, and other important health care decisions regarding the use of HIT in their environment. The other objective of this RFA is to support the development of models or other tools that can be used to help demonstrate the value of HIT or to advance the adoption of HIT. For the purpose of this RFA, value is defined as clinical, organizational, financial, or other benefits derived from the adoption, utilization, and diffusion of HIT less the costs of achieving these benefits. Specific aspects of value may include things such as: reduction in medical errors; improved use of effective and recommended interventions; decreased use of inappropriate or ineffective interventions; increased use of clinical guidelines and evidence-based clinical decisions; improvements in access to care and quality of care; improvements in provider productivity; more efficient use of personnel; reductions in costs (total costs or costs related to specific activities and functions); enhanced revenues; better coordination of care among providers; improved patient involvement and satisfaction; and greater transparency and accountability of provider operations. These potential benefits must be weighed against the costs and potentially detrimental consequences of HIT adoption. Applicants are encouraged to submit proposals that examine the value of HIT in diverse health care settings (e.g., inpatient hospitals, outpatient clinics, nursing homes, home health, and community care), consider the perspective of various stakeholders (e.g., patients, providers and health care organizations), and include priority populations (e.g., low income groups; minority groups; women; children; the elderly; and individuals with special health care needs, including individuals with disabilities and individuals who need chronic care or end-of-life health care). AHRQ is also specifically interested in applications that will examine the value of new and emerging HIT, as well as applications that explore the unique barriers faced by rural and small community providers in adopting HIT and opportunities for overcoming these barriers. The National Library of Medicine (NLM) provides grant support to health- related institutions and organizations for projects to plan, design, test and deploy systems and techniques for integrating data, information and knowledge resources into a comprehensive networked information management system. NLM supports these organizations in their efforts to build integrated advanced information managements systems (IAIMS). IAIMS are computer networks that link and relate the published biomedical knowledge base with individual and institutional databases and information files, within and external to an institution. The long-term goal of an IAIMS is a comprehensive and convenient information management system, one that brings useful, usable knowledge to action settings in health care, education and research, binding knowledge to effective action. Particular emphasis is placed on mechanisms that enable the easy flow of information between arenas of action, such as between health care and education, or between health-related organizations, such as from a community clinic to a hospital or public health department. Of particular interest to NLM are projects which focus on context-appropriate information to guide learning and decisions; standards based information management that employs standard vocabularies and information exchange protocols; and digital libraries. This RFA is one in a series of solicitations to be issued by AHRQ in FY 2004 on the use of HIT to improve patient safety and quality of care. The solicitations form an integrated set of activities designed to explore strategies for successful organizational and community-wide planning and implementation of HIT solutions and to demonstrate the value of HIT in patient safety and quality of care. The FY 04 HIT initiative will place particular emphasis on the challenges facing rural and small communities in integrating HIT into their health care delivery systems. In addition to this RFA, other grants and contracts to be released as part of this program include: 1. Transforming Healthcare Quality through Information Technology (THQIT) Planning Grants - planning grants to provide organizations and communities with the resources needed to develop their capacity to compete for AHRQ (and other funding agencies) implementation grants and further develop their HIT capabilities for improving patient safety and quality of care. Planning grants will enable these entities to begin planning and developing their HIT infrastructure and data sharing capacity among clinical provider organizations in their communities. 2. Transforming Healthcare Quality Through Information Technology (THQIT) Implementation Grants - implementation grants aimed at providing resources to community partners who have successfully completed the planning process and plan to implement HIT in their practice setting. These projects must also include an evaluation of the effects of HIT on important patient safety and quality measures. The objective of this RFA is to support implementation and diffusion of HIT and to assess the extent to which HIT contributes to measurable and sustainable improvements in patient safety and quality of care. Research resulting from this RFA should inform AHRQ, providers, patients, payers, policymakers, and the public about how HIT can be successfully implemented in diverse health care settings and lead to safer and better health care. 3. Health Information Technology Resource Center (HITRC) - The center will provide technical assistance to grantees; serve as a repository for best practice assimilation and diffusion; help develop, maintain and export executable knowledge for clinicians and patients; offer expert HIT support for providers and communities; perform and sponsor educational activities; and develop and disseminate tools to help providers and organizations utilize HIT to improve patient safety and quality of care. In July 2003, AHRQ convened a diverse group of approximately 50 experts who helped the Agency to identify gaps in knowledge relating to the use of HIT and provided recommendations on important thematic areas for AHRQs HIT initiatives in FY 2004. Among the panels many recommendations were the need for more research on the impact of HIT on important health-related outcomes; more research on HIT in diverse healthcare settings; the need to support local and regional HIT collaborative projects that would lead to standards-based data sharing across healthcare delivery sites; the need to demonstrate the value of HIT in improving patient safety and quality of care, including direct/indirect and tangible/intangible benefits; the need to study incentives and disincentives to the adoption and use of HIT; the need for technical assistance to providers, organizations, and communities in order to implement HIT successfully in their environment; and the need to develop evidence-based, executable knowledge content and decision-support tools to support clinical decision-making. The panel also encouraged collaboration between AHRQ and other Federal agencies, such as the Office for Rural Health Programs (OHRP) at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to leverage the resources, expertise, and experiences of these diverse Federal agencies and increase the programs chances of success. Finally, the panel stressed the need for developing collaborative partnerships and HIT programs that are viable and sustainable. A summary of the proceedings is available on the AHRQ website at www.ahrq.gov/data/hitmeet.htm.