Purpose:
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), in partnership with the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), invites applications for funding to support innovative patient-centered outcomes research small pilot projects in Learning Health Systems (LHS) that evaluate the outcomes of embedded research and evaluate the processes by which embedded research can enhance impact, stakeholder engagement, and other health system-identified outcomes of interest.
Background:
A Learning Health System (LHS) is a health system in which internal data and experience are systematically integrated with external evidence, and that knowledge is put into practice. As a result, patients get higher quality, safer, more efficient care, and health care delivery organizations become better places to work. The LHS incorporates a model in which both institutional and clinical practice partners are actively engaged and participate in the generation, adoption, and application of evidence. A LHS scientist is an individual who is embedded within a health system and collaborates with its stakeholders to produce novel insights and evidence that can be rapidly implemented to improve the outcomes of individuals, populations, and health system performance.
Effective collaboration between LHS scientists and health system stakeholders in research priority-setting, research question development, study design, data collection methods, interpretation and dissemination is critical to enhance the development and impacts of embedded research (Yano et al., Healthcare; 2020). The purpose of this funding announcement is to support small grant projects in Learning Health Systems that evaluate the outcomes of embedded patient-centered outcomes research and evaluate the processes by which embedded research can enhance implementation, dissemination, impact, stakeholder engagement, and other health system-identified outcomes of interest. Projects must focus on dissemination and/or implementation of research supported by AHRQ or PCORI.
Eligible projects will address a health system-identified need or priority, have a health system partner as a co-Investigator or other partnership designation, include in-kind contributions (e.g., data access or other support) from health system partners, and include a plan to engage senior system leaders throughout the project duration, including dissemination of findings. Applicants must establish collaborative relationships with at least one health system. All applicants must demonstrate a track record of excellence in conducting system-based research aimed at improving clinical treatment and/or health care delivery, and a focus on conducting PCOR within health systems that health systems can rapidly disseminate and implement to improve quality of care and patient outcomes. Collaboration with one or more PCORnet Clinical Research Networks (https://pcornet.org/network) is encouraged in order to link researchers, patient communities, clinicians, and health systems in research partnerships that leverage large volumes of health data while also ensuring that the research focuses on questions and outcomes that matter most to patients and those who care for them. Examples of topics for pilot projects include but are not limited to patient centeredness, system operations, and health disparities and health equity.
Projects on the topics of quality improvement, cost-effectiveness research, or that propose creating clinical guidelines, are not eligible for this FOA. Cost-effectiveness analysis is a method to compare an intervention to another intervention (or the status quo) by estimating how much it costs to gain a unit of a health outcome. Examples of non-responsive quality improvement projects include those that lack adequate model fidelity to produce reliable results, lack generalizability, and/or lack adequate detail to be replicated in settings beyond the initial study setting. Applications focused on these topics may instead be submitted to PA-18-794.
Recipients of awards under this FOA must provide final reports of performance in achieving the FOA objective to support LHS to evaluate the outcomes of embedded research and evaluate the processes by which embedded research can enhance impact, stakeholder engagement, and other health system-identified outcomes of interest (see section VI.3. Reporting).
See Section VIII. Other Information for award authorities and regulations.
Key Dates:
URL for more information:
https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-21-202.html#_Part_1._Overview
Filed Under: Funding Opportunities