Fiscal Year 2009
This program brief describes AHRQ's grant program for health services research career development awards in three areas: the Mentored Clinical Research Scientist Program (K09), the Mentored Research Scientist Program (K01), and the Independent Scientist Award Program (K02). Career development awards made by AHRQ in FY 2009 are briefly described, and contact information is provided for specific programmatic questions.
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Contents
Introduction
Mentored Clinical Research Scientist Program (K08)
Mentored Research Scientist Program (K01)
Independent Scientist Award Program (K02)
More Information
Introduction
The mission of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is to improve the safety, quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans. To help achieve the Agency's mission, AHRQ supports extramural research grants and contracts, research training, conference grants, and intramural activities.
AHRQ is committed to the development and nurturing of a cadre of clinical and research scientists who will focus their time and expertise on some of the most important problems facing our Nation's health care system. Toward this goal, AHRQ provides support for three career development programs. Each of these programs provides salary support for junior faculty or applied researchers, emerging leaders in the field, and/or those in career transition for an intensive research career development experience in health services research. AHRQ's three career development programs are:
- The Mentored Clinical Research Scientist Program (K08) provides support for a period of 3 to 5 years to individuals with a clinical doctoral degree. These individuals participate in a supervised research career development experience in health services research. The award can be used both by individuals who are new to heath services research training and those who have had a hiatus in their research careers because of illness or family circumstances.
- The Mentored Research Scientist Program (K01), which parallels the K08 program, is geared toward individuals who have research doctorates. This new program was initiated by AHRQ in FY 2009.
- The Independent Scientist Award Program (K02) fosters the further development of new health service researchers by offering them the potential to expand and make significant contributions to their field of research. The K02 award provides 3, 4, or 5 years of salary support and "protected time" to devote to their research and career development.
In FY 2009, AHRQ awarded 32 career development grants, which are described here. Each entry includes information on the grantee and his or her research focus.
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Mentored Clinical Research Scientist Program (K08)
Changes in Hospital Care Organization and Outcomes.
Principal investigator: Ann Kutney Lee, Assistant Professor, Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, University of Pennsylvania. AHRQ grant HS18534; project period September 30, 2009—July 31, 2012. Dr. Lee earned a PhD in Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania, where she received the Marian R. Gregory Distinguished Dissertation Award, a National Research Service Award (NRSA) institutional postdoctoral appointment, and the Ann Wolbert Burgess Endowed Student Award. Her project will examine the effect of changes over time in nurse staffing, nurse practice environments, and patient characteristics within hospitals on medical-surgical patient outcomes and nurse retention. Her long-term career goal is to focus on nursing outcomes research and the care of patients with chronic illness.
Closing the Research-to-Practice Gap in Cardiac Care of Minority and Low Income Populations.
Principal investigator: Adesuwa Olomu, Associate Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Michigan State University. AHRQ grant HS18104; project period July 1, 2009—June 30, 2014. Dr. Olomu received an MD at the University of Benin, did a residency in Internal Medicine at the Michigan State University Associated Hospital, and earned an MS in epidemiology, also from Michigan State. She received the Residents' Award for Research Teacher of the Year at MSU's Internal Medicine Residency Program and is noted in the Guide to America's Top Physicians. The goals of her project are to improve the implementation of evidence-based guidelines for secondary prevention of coronary heart disease for both African Americans and low socioeconomic status populations, integrate decision support tools into an office-based electronic tracking and reminder system, and demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of applying practice guidelines in federally qualified community health centers. Dr. Olomu's career goal is to focus on improving quality of care for blacks and low income populations with heart disease by translating research into practice.
Comparative Effectiveness of Time-Adjusted Trauma Center Care on Mortality.
Principal investigator: Brendan G. Carr, Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. AHRQ grant HS17960, project period April 1, 2009—March 31, 2014. Dr. Carr received an MD from Temple University and served a residency in emergency medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, followed by a fellowship in trauma and surgical critical care at the same site. He was in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine where he earned a Masters in Health Policy. The focus of Dr. Carr's research is to assess the accuracy of a model of prehospital times for patients traveling to trauma and nontrauma center hospitals; determine whether severity-adjusted differences in mortality exist for injured patients treated at these facilities; and determine if validated estimates of prehospital time are significant predictors of severity-adjusted mortality for injured patients treated at U.S. trauma and nontrauma centers. Dr. Carr's goal is to become an independent health services researcher in the field of emergency medicine.
Comparing the Effectiveness of Medication Use Systems in Small Rural Hospitals.
Principal investigator: Gary Cochran, Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacy Practice, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha. AHRQ grant HS18059, project period July 1, 2009—June 30, 2014. Dr. Cochran received a PharmD from the University of Nebraska. His research project has two specific aims: (1) compare the effectiveness and cost of bedside bar-code administration to two other methods of medication dispensing that are frequently used in critical access hospitals; and (2) compare the effectiveness and cost of telepharmacy services, bedside bar-code administration, and full-time pharmacy support in critical access hospitals. Dr. Cochran hopes to develop an independent research program focusing on the safe and effective use of medications in rural communities.
Disparities in Diabetes Care: Health Plan Focus and Physician Responsiveness.
Principal investigator: Connie Trinacty, Assistant Professor, Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. AHRQ grant HS18072; project period July 1, 2009—June 30, 2014. Dr. Trinacty earned a PhD in Health Policy from Harvard University. She received the Pharmaceutical Policy Research Fellowship and the Thomas O. Pyle Research Fellowship, both at Harvard Medical School. The goals of her project are to characterize how health plans' organizational structures and behavior influence disparities in diabetes care; test the impact of varying cut-points used to define quality of care performance targets on reported disparities; and assess provider awareness and response to system-based initiatives that impact diabetes disparities. Dr. Trinacty's career goal is to become a local and national leader in health disparities research.
Does Screening Variability Make DVT an Unreliable Quality Measure of Trauma Care?
Principal investigator: Elliott Haut, Assistant Professor, Division of Trauma and Critical Care, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia; and Assistant Professor, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins University. AHRQ grant HS17952; project period July 1, 2009—June 30, 2013. Dr. Haut received an MD from the University of Pennsylvania and served a residency in General Surgery at Pennsylvania Hospital. He received the American College of Chest Physicians Young Investigator Award and the Quality and Safety Award at The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. His project will examine the impact of hospital-level ultrasound rates on deep vein thrombosis (DVT) rates reported after major trauma; determine whether hospital duplex and DVT rates correlate with the presence of a hospital duplex ultrasound screening protocol for high-risk trauma patients; and determine if patients are more likely to have DVT diagnosed and reported based on hospital characteristics. Dr. Haut's goal is to apply rigorously designed research to improve the care of injured patients.
Evaluating and Improving Present-on-Admission for Performance Reporting.
Principal investigator: Elizabeth L. Goldman, Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. AHRQ grant HS18090; project period July 1, 2009—June 30, 2014. Dr. Goldman received an MD from the Yale School of Medicine and served a residency in Internal Medicine, followed by a General Medicine Fellowship at UCSF, during which she earned a Masters in Clinical Research. Dr. Goldman received an American Medical Women's Association Community Service Award and a Howard Hughes Fellowship. Her project aims to: (1) determine the accuracy of present-on-admission coding in California acute care hospitals and assess for coding biases; (2) determine whether inaccuracies in present-on-admission coding are biased by hospital characteristics and whether inaccuracies can bias performance assessment of hospital risk-adjusted mortality; and (3) improve the accuracy of hospital assessments of complications and performance by developing a methodology to distinguish comorbidities present at admission from potential complications of care. Dr. Goldman plans to focus on research to improve the quality and safety of hospital care.
Impact of Regionalization of Care in Acute Stroke Patients.
Principal investigator: Prasanthi Ramanujam, Assistant Clinical Professor in Emergency Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. AHRQ grant HS17965; project period April 1, 2009—March 31, 2014. Dr. Ramanujam earned a medical degree at the Madras Medical College in India and did an internship in Internal Medicine at Boston University Medical Center, followed by a residency in Emergency Medicine, also at Boston, and a fellowship in Emergency Medical Services at the University of California, San Diego Medical Center. She received the David Frommer Award for Academic Excellence from Boston Medical Center. Her project will focus on examining the differences in rate of tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) use and mortality between regionalized and non-regionalized stroke systems, assessing the cost-effectiveness of regionalized stroke care, and determining the sensitivity and positive predictive value of prehospital identification of stroke patients in regionalized and non-regionalized stroke systems. Dr. Ramanujam plans to focus on outcomes after prehospital interventions in patients with neurologic emergencies and the cost-effectiveness of clinical treatments.
Improving and Assessing Outcomes of Central Lines in the Emergency Department.
Principal investigator: Daniel Theodoro, Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO. AHRQ grant HS18092; project period August 1, 2009—July 31, 2013. Dr. Theodoro received an MD from Brown University and completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Barnes-Jewish Medical Center, St. Louis, followed by a residency in Emergency Medicine at the Jacobi Montefiore Hospitals, Bronx, NY, and an Emergency Medicine Ultrasound Fellowship at North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset, NY. He received the Golden Stethoscope Award from Washington University School of Medicine, and he is Chairman of the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine Ultrasound Interest Group. His project is a randomized controlled trial in the ED to determine whether ultrasound guidance at the location of the subclavian vein is feasible and improves patient safety by minimizing immediate adverse events; demonstrate that central line placement is increasing in EDs by measuring the changes in proportion of central venous cannulations per number of patient visits per year; compare the catheter-related blood infection rate of central lines inserted in the ED with those inserted in ICUs; and model the cost of adverse outcomes of central venous cannulations in the ED. Dr. Theodoro's career goals are to define clear patient-oriented outcomes, improve emergency medicine research methodology, and measure the economic impact of advances that begin with interventions in the ED.
Improving Management of Test Results that Return After Hospital Discharge.
Principal investigator: Martin Were, Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. AHRQ grant HS18539; project period September 30, 2009—July 31, 2013. Dr. Were received an MD from Harvard Medical School and an MS in Clinical Research from Indiana University School of Medicine. He received the Student Paper Award from the American Medical Informatics Association Annual Symposium. The goals of his project are to develop and implement a computerized tool to automatically identify tests with pending results at hospital discharge and assist in incorporating the tests into the discharge summary; evaluate the impact of this tool on accuracy in documenting pending tests in discharge summaries; modify an existing clinical messaging program to enable automatic delivery of returning results of pending tests to the designated outpatient followup providers; and evaluate how the automatic delivery of test results impacts the actions and attitudes of followup providers. Dr. Were's long-term career objective is to focus on implementing and evaluating informatics-based interventions to improve quality of care and patient safety.
Improving Patient Safety and Disease Management While on Contact Isolation.
Principal investigator: Daniel Morgan, Assistant Professor, School of Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore Campus; and Associate Hospital Epidemiologist, Veterans Affairs of Maryland. AHRQ grant HS18111; project period July 1, 2009—June 30, 2014. Dr. Morgan received an MD from the University of Rochester, where he also did a residency in Internal Medicine. He was a Research Fellow in International Medicine at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, where he also had a Clinical Fellow appointment in International Medicine and Infectious Diseases. He received a Jonathan Freeman Scholarship. His project has three main aims: (1) identify and quantify the negative effects associated with patients on contact isolation; (2) evaluate how contact isolation changes staff behavior and hospital flow; and (3) identify predictors of adverse events while on contact isolation. Dr. Morgan's long-term goal is to become a leader in the area of patient safety and the optimal application of patient isolation.
Knowledge Engineering for Decision Support in Osteoporosis.
Principal investigator: Joanne Lafleur, Research Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacotherapy, University of Utah College of Pharmacy, Salt Lake City. AHRQ grant HS18582; project period September 30, 2009—July 31, 2014. Dr. Lafleur received a PharmD and an MS in Public Health from the University of Utah, followed by a Fellowship in the Pharmacotherapy Outcomes Research Center. She was a University of Utah Primary Care Research Center Scholar and received an American Society of Hospital Pharmacists (ASHP) Foundation Federal Services Junior Investigator Research Grant award. The goals of her project are to create and validate a VA-specific risk-stratification rule for fragility fractures; incorporate the rule into a computerized decision support system for osteoporosis treatment; and pilot-test the decision support tool for initiating osteoporosis treatment. Dr. Lafleur is interested in identifying and preventing drug-therapy failures in chronic disease populations, and she is focusing on the clinical area of osteoporosis for systems interventions to prevent such failures.
Measuring and Mitigating Patient Safety Threats Due to Strains on ICU Capacity.
Principal investigator: Scott Halpern, Assistant Professor, Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Pennsylvania. AHRQ grant HS18406; project period September 30, 2009—July 31, 2009. Dr. Halpern received an MD and PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania. He has ranked in the top 10 percent of peer reviewers for Annals of Internal Medicine and has received a Society of Critical Care Medicine VISION Award, a Greenwall Foundation Faculty Scholar Award in Bioethics, and an International Society of Health and Lung Transplantation Junior Faculty Award. His project has three goals: (1) measure the factors that strain the capacity of an intensive care unit (ICU); (2) quantify the threats such strains pose to patient safety; and (3) identify the organizational characteristics of ICUs that enable them to accommodate increasing strain safely. Dr. Halpern's goal is to focus on improving the safety of care provided to critically ill patients.
Mortality Assessment in Lung Cancer Resection.
Principal investigator: Benjamin Kozower, Assistant Professor of Surgery, School of Medicine, University of Virginia. AHRQ grant HS18049; project period July 1, 2009—June 30, 2014. Dr. Kozower received an MD from the University of Rochester and did a residency in General Surgery at the University of Connecticut, followed by a Thoracic Surgery Residency at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis. He was the recipient of the Chief Resident Teaching Award and the Ludwig J. Pyrtek Award for Outstanding Academic Contribution from the University of Connecticut. The goals of his project are to develop and validate an efficient and clinically useful statistical model for estimating patient-specific survival following lung cancer resection and determine the specific threshold of hospital volume at which mortality risk is substantially increased following lung cancer resection. Dr. Kozower's long-term career goal is to improve the quality and delivery of care for lung cancer patients.
Neglected by the Evidence: The Intersection of Medical Complexity and Dementia.
Principal investigator: Lori Daiello, Assistant Professor, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Providence, RI. AHRQ grant HS17735, project period July 1, 2009—June 30, 2014. Dr. Daiello received a PharmD from Ohio State University and did a post-doctoral fellowship in dementia research at Brown. She received a Senior Care Pharmacist Award from the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists, a Young Investigators Award from the Lifespan Research Celebration, and a Shellie E. Brassler Alzheimer's Disease Professional Impact Award. Her research project will: (1) evaluate the behavioral, cognitive, and functional effects of discontinuing stable cholinesterase inhibitor (CHEI) therapy compared to continuous CHEI therapy in nursing facility residents with dementia; (2) determine the extent to which cognitively impaired individuals who receive isoflurane general anesthesia during hip fracture repair experience greater postoperative cognitive and functional decline in the year after surgery compared to patients receiving other types of general anesthesia; and (3) quantify the effects of isoflurane anesthesia versus other general or regional anesthesia on the rate of postoperative cognitive and functional decline in cognitively impaired patients in the year after hip fracture repair surgery. Dr. Daiello's goal is to conduct research in geriatric psychopharmacology, health outcomes, and medication safety in frail elderly populations.
Off-Label Prescribing: Comparative Evidence, Regulation, and Utilization.
Principal investigator: Aaron Kesselheim, Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Staff Physician, Faulkner Hospital, Jamaica Plain, MA; and Affiliated Physician, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. AHRQ grant HS18465; project period September 30, 2009—July 31, 2014. Dr. Kesselheim received an MD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and a JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He served a residency in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and earned an MPH in Clinical Effectiveness at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Kesselheim received the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine Young Alumnus of the Year; Brigham and Women's Hospital Karen Kaufman Memorial Book Award; the American College of Legal Medicine Schwartz Award; and the Burton Award for national excellence in legal writing. The goals of his project are to: develop a comprehensive typology of off-label drug use, identify selected drugs in three categories (oncologic, neuropsychiatric, and 'orphan') and define the range of off-label uses, and evaluate the effects of specific external scientific, market, and regulatory/legal events on the frequency, characteristics, and costs of off-label drug use. Dr. Kesselheim plans to focus on how legal and regulatory issues affect health care delivery, particularly in the pharmaceutical market.
Patient Readiness to Use Internet Health Resources.
Principal investigator: Richelle J. Koopman, Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine, University of Missouri-Columbia. AHRQ grant HS17948; project period March 1, 2009—February 28, 2014. Dr. Koopman received an MD from the University of Pittsburgh and served a residency in Family Medicine at St. Margaret Memorial-University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. She was later a Faculty Development Fellow at the Medical University of South Carolina where she earned a Masters in Clinical Research. The primary goals of her research are to: (1) develop a measure of the readiness of patients with chronic conditions to use Web-based health resources for health information exchange; and (2) determine how the frequency and type of Web-based health resources are associated with improvements in clinical measures for patients with type 2 diabetes. Dr. Koopman will focus on improving the quality and safety of patient care for individuals with chronic conditions.
Patient-Centered Online Care Model for Followup Management of Atopic Dermatitis.
Principal investigator: April Armstrong, Assistant Professor of Dermatology and Director of Teledermatology Program, Department of Dermatology, University of California, Davis. AHRQ grant HS18341, project period September 30, 2009—July 31, 2014. Dr. Armstrong received an MD from Harvard Medical School and served an internship in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital, followed by a residency in Dermatology in the Harvard Combined Dermatology Program. She received several research fellowships and grant awards. The objectives of her project are to: (1) assess the effects of an online model for delivering direct, followup dermatologic care on clinical outcomes in patients with atopic dermatitis; (2) evaluate the effects of the model on quality of life in patients with atopic dermatitis; and (3) determine the level of patient satisfaction and patient knowledge about atopic dermatitis after receiving care using the model. The grantee's long-term career goal is to increase access to specialist care for patients in rural and medically underserved communities.
Stroke Telemedicine Access Recovery (STAR).
Principal investigator: Patricia Gregory, Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill. AHRQ grant HS11295; project period July 1, 2009—June 30, 2014. Dr. Gregory received an MD from the University of Virginia and did a residency at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, followed by a fellowship in rehabilitation research at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Gregory was a Simmons Scholar at UNC and was a recipient of the Best Doctors of the United States award, a Sheps Center for Health Services Research ECHO Pilot Project award, and a Program on Aging and Diversity Pilot Grant. The focus of her project is to (1) demonstrate the effects of early rehabilitation by comparing rate of discharge to various rehabilitation settings versus home with no services; (2) compare rates of self-reported physical activity levels between two groups of participants after 90 days; and (3) identify the barriers to successful implementation of a STAR project. Dr. Gregory's career goal is to conduct studies that will improve access to evidence-based rehabilitation services for underserved and rural populations.
Telehealth Learning Collaborative for Pediatric Obesity in Rural Primary Care.
Principal investigator: Ulfat Shaikh, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis; and Attending Physician, Pediatric Weight Management Clinic and Pediatric Lactation Clinic, UC, Davis. AHRQ grant HS18567; project period September 30, 2009—July 31, 2012. Dr. Shaikh received an MD from Goa Medical College, India, and did an internship at the same institution in Medicine and Surgery. She earned an MPH from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and did a residency in Pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, Lebanon Hospital. She was awarded a Fellowship in Primary Care Faculty Development at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, and she has a Masters in Clinical Research from UC Davis. Dr. Shaikh received a Dean's Award for Excellence from the School of Medicine, University of California, Davis; a House Staff Teaching Award, from the UC Davis Department of Pediatrics; and a Western Society for Pediatric Research Scholar Award. Her project will demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of a health IT-enabled quality improvement learning collaborative (HEALTH-LC) in increasing assessment of weight status and provision of family-centered care for diet and physical activity; demonstrate the use of HEALTH-LC in improving short-term diet and physical activity behaviors in children seen for well-child visits; and qualitatively describe clinic team members' experiences in the HEALTH-LC. Dr. Shaikh's long-term career goal is to use health IT to improve the quality of pediatric health care, with a focus on pediatric obesity.
Using Health Information Technology to Improve Delivery of HPV Vaccine.
Principal investigator: Cynthia Rand, Assistant Professor, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. AHRQ grant HS17951; project period September 30, 2009—September 29, 2014. Dr. Rand received an MD from SUNY Stony Brook School of Medicine and served a residency in Pediatrics at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. She went on to earn an MPH from the University of Rochester School of Medicine while she was a General Academic Pediatric Fellow, and she received a William L. Bradford Fellowship. Dr. Rand's project will measure baseline rates of missed opportunities for human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination, the intervals between HPV vaccine doses, and the proportion of patients who received, one, two, or three vaccinations; develop and implement a health IT-based intervention to reduce missed opportunities and intervals between doses and increase completion of the HPV vaccination series in inner-city practices; and measure post-intervention rates. Dr. Rand would like to develop initiatives within primary care practices that serve adolescents to ensure HPV vaccine and other preventive services are delivered optimally in the context of comprehensive primary care.
Using Health Information Technology to Support Population-Based Clinical Practice.
Principal investigator: Per Gesteland, Assistant Professor, Division of Inpatient Medicine, Primary Children's Medical Center, Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City. Dr. Gesteland received an MD from the University of Utah and did a combined residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota. Later, he earned a Masters in Medical Informatics at Utah and was a Pediatric Clinical and Translational Research Scholar there. Dr. Gesteland's project has four main goals: (1) use focus groups and structured observation to assess primary care clinicians' use of current health information resources and decision support tools in caring for patients with acute respiratory infections (ARIs); (2) refine population-based ARI health information resources and decision support tools to improve clinical information system workflow and patient communication; (3) implement these population-based resources and tools in primary and urgent care settings; and (4) measure the effects of these resources on clinical practice and patient/parent compliance. Dr. Gesteland's career goal is to use information technology and clinical information systems to study and optimize the management of common diseases that affect people of all ages.
The Value of Hospital-Related Patient Safety Interventions to Key Stakeholders.
Principal investigator: Teryl K. Nuckols, Assistant Professor, Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research, Department of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles. AHRQ grant HS17954; project period April 1, 2009—March 31, 2013. Dr. Nuckols also has an appointment as a health services researcher, RAND Corporation. She received an MD from the University of California, San Diego and did an internship in the Department of General Surgery at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, followed by an internship and residency at the Center for Health Sciences, Department of Medicine, UCLA. Subsequently, Dr. Nuckols received a NRSA Primary Care Research Fellowship award. The goals of her project are to develop an approach to evaluate the effects of hospital-related patient safety interventions on key stakeholders, including financial effects on payers, employers, hospitals, and physicians and assess the health and financial effects on patients. Dr. Nuckols hopes to make substantive contributions to policy decisions in the fields of patient safety and quality of care by providing policymakers with information on the potential effects of their decisions on quality/safety and costs.
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Mentored Research Scientist Program (K01)
Comparative Effectiveness Methods for Evaluation of In-Hospital Exposures.
Principal investigator: Jeremy Rassen, Instructor of Medicine, Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Brigham and Women's Hospital. AHRQ grant HS18088; project period July 1, 2009—June 30, 2014. Dr. Rassen received an ScD in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. His research project has four main aims: (1) use an in-hospital administrative database to describe variation in treatment patterns to inform methodological implications for comparative effectiveness (CE) research; (2) evaluate additional confounding and outcome assessment available in linked in- and out-of-hospital data sources versus in-hospital data alone; (3) improve methods for evaluation of CE and safety of in-hospital treatments; and (4) develop methods of confounding adjustment based on information found in hospital electronic medical records. Dr. Rassen's career goal is to focus on in-hospital drug and device exposures.
Context-Aware Knowledge Delivery into Electronic Health Records.
Principal investigator: Guilherme Del Fiol, Assistant Professor, Division of Clinical Informatics, Department of Community and Family Medicine, Duke University Medical Center. AHRQ grant HS18352; project period September 30, 2009—July 31, 2013. Dr. Del Fiol received an MD from the University of Sao Paulo where he also did a residency in Medical Informatics. Subsequently, he earned a PhD in Biomedical Informatics from the University of Utah. He received the Bruce Houtches Award, Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Utah and a student paper award from the American Medical Informatics Association Annual Symposium. The goals of his project are to build a knowledge base of patients' and providers' knowledge needs; design, develop, and evaluate the usability of a scalable, widely deployable knowledge delivery service in a laboratory setting; and conduct a mixed-method assessment of a pilot implementation of the knowledge broker in a real-work medical home environment. Dr. De Fiol's long-term career goal is to foster the widespread dissemination of knowledge management applications that improve the quality, safety, effectiveness, and efficiency of health services in the United States and abroad.
Defining and Building a Patient-Centered Medical Home.
Principal investigator: Rebecca Malouin, Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Human Development and Department of Family Medicine, and Director, International Programs, Department of Family Medicine, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University. AHRQ grant HS17955; project period September 30, 2009—July 31, 2014. Dr. Malouin received a PhD in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University and a Grant Generating Program Fellowship at the University of Missouri, Columbia, and a Blake Smith Scholarship from the Department of Family Medicine at MSU. She also received a Center for Advanced Study of International Development Curriculum Development Award. Her project has three main aims: (1) examine the correlation between the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) recognition tool and a tool measuring the evidence-based features of primary care; (2) identify the factors underlying each of the tools; and (3) assess the correlation between the PCMH recognition tool and a tool measuring the evidence-based features of primary care with clinical outcomes. Dr. Malouin's goal is to focus on identifying appropriate elements to be included in a tool to evaluate the patient-centered medical home.
MammoTutor: An Internet-Based Computer Tutoring System to Teach General Radiologists.
Principal investigator: Claudia Mello-Thoms, Research Assistant Professor, Department of Radiology and Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Pittsburgh. AHRQ grant HS18365; project period September 30, 2009—July 31, 2013. Dr. Mello-Thoms earned a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Rutgers University and received a Herbert M. Stauffer Award for best clinical science paper published in Academic Radiology. The goal of her project is to develop a computer-based cognitive tutoring system that can teach generalists and novice radiologists how to detect early-stage breast cancer and how to reduce the number of unnecessary biopsy recommendations. Dr. Mello-Thomas would like to be on the forefront in the development of new training methods involving the physician-human interaction with technology.
Patient Safety and Acute Kidney Injury.
Principal investigator: Jeremiah Brown, Instructor, Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. AHRQ grant HS18443; project period September 30, 2009—July 31, 2014. Dr. Brown received a PhD in Health Services Research from Dartmouth and an American Heart Association post-doctoral fellowship in Cardiovascular Epidemiology at Dartmouth Medical School, as well as a NRSA fellowship in Health Services Research at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. The goals of his project are to evaluate whether high-intensity quality improvement reduces the risk of contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) and examine whether CI-AKI is associated with the development of chronic kidney disease (CKD), progression of CKD, and development of end-stage renal disease, repeat revascularization, and long-term mortality. Dr. Brown's goal is to focus on patient safety and the interaction between chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease.
The Quality of Emergency Care and Relationship to Patient-Reported Outcomes.
Principal investigator: Melissa McCarthy, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. AHRQ grant HS17957; project period July 1, 2009—June 30, 2014. Dr. McCarthy received an ScD in Health Services Research from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The goals of her project are to identify determinants that influence the quality of emergency care; evaluate the quality of emergency care in terms of its impact on patient-reported outcomes; and improve the quality of emergency care through the implementation and evaluation of a promising intervention. Dr. McCarthy's long-term career goals include applying all six Institute of Medicine domains of quality to the evaluation and improvement of ED care; establishing and leading a clinical services program aimed at continually improving the quality of ED care and advancing the sciences that underpin program interventions and evaluations; and incorporating patient-reported outcome measurement into routine monitoring of quality in the ED.
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Independent Scientist Award Program (K02)
Doubly Robust Elimination: Best Practices for Comparative Effectiveness Research.
Principal investigator: Michele L. Jonsson Funk, Director, Methods Core, Center for Women's Health Research, and Research Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology, UNC, Chapel Hill. AHRQ grant HS17950; project period February 1, 2009—January 31, 2014. Dr. Jonsson Funk received a PhD in Epidemiology from UNC, Chapel Hill, and she was a Research Fellow, Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research and an Honorary Research Fellow, HIV Division, Medical Research Council, London, UK. Her research project has several goals: quantify the degree to which doubly robust (DR) estimation leads to bias reduction relative to standard methods; evaluate estimated standard errors under a broad range of conditions; determine the optimal covariate types for inclusion in the component models; validate a new approach to variable and model-form selection; develop and test strategies specific to DR estimation for the identification of non-uniform treatment effects; and identify conditions under which DR methods perform worse than standard methods. She intends to focus her career on the development and application of advanced methods for causal inference (doubly robust estimators, in particular) to questions of comparative effectiveness and safety.
Measuring Quality of Primary Care in Complex Pediatric Patients.
Principal investigator: Alex Chen, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine, Children's Hospital, Los Angeles. AHRQ grant HS18087; project period July 1, 2009—June 30, 2012. Dr. Chen received an MD from Harvard Medical School and did a residency in Pediatrics at UCLA. Subsequently, he earned an MS in Health Services from UCLA. He was a PEW Scholar, a Barry Goldwater Scholar, a Northwestern University Marcy Scholar, and a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar. The goals of his project are to develop comprehensive and clinically meaningful primary care quality guidelines for pediatric patients with complex developmental conditions; develop primary care quality guidelines for pediatric patients with two or more chronic medical conditions; determine the feasibility of implementing medical home-driven quality measures in pediatric primary care settings; and produce a quality scorecard using medical home-driven quality measures in combination with established disease-specific standards of care for a complex developmental condition (Down Syndrome). Dr. Chen is committed to a career as a pediatric health services researcher with clinical work to complement and strengthen his research effort.
Improvements in Health Outcomes from Health Insurance.
Principal investigator: Bradley Herring, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University. AHRQ grant HS18455; project period September 30, 2009—July 31, 2014. Dr. Herring received a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and did a fellowship in Health Policy at Yale University. He was a Senior Economist for the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Dr. Herring's project has three main aims: (1) construct measures of the availability of public and private insurance to be used as exogenous measures of insurance status in health outcomes studies; (2) conduct several studies for morbidity, access to care, and mortality using different data sources to test the causal effect of private and public insurance coverage on improving health outcomes; and (3) translate the observed variation in these health outcomes to associated changes in health spending. Dr. Herring's long-term career goal is to be an expert in the area of health insurance coverage.
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More Information
For more information about the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, please visit the AHRQ Web site at http://www.ahrq.gov. For more detailed information on funding for career development grants and other training programs supported by AHRQ, including answers to commonly asked questions, please visit http://www.ahrq.gov/fund/training/trainix.htm.
For specific programmatic questions, please contact:
Karen Rudzinski, PhD
Health Scientist Administrator
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
540 Gaither Road
Rockville, MD 20850
301-427-1529
Karen.Rudzinski@ahrq.hhs.gov
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AHRQ Publication No. 10-P002
Current as of March 2010
Internet Citation:
AHRQ's Health Services Research Career Development Grant Program: New Starts, Fiscal Year 2009. Fact Sheet. AHRQ Publication 10-P002, March 2010. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/fund/training/cdgrants09.htm
540 Gaither Road Rockville, MD 20850 