NIH Guide, Volume 26, Number 9, March 21, 1997
Notice: P.T. 34
Keywords:
Health Services Delivery
Grants Administration/Policy
Agency for Health Care Policy and Research
Purpose
The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR)
encourages applications for the "AHCPR Small Project Grant
Program" that address the AHCPR strategic goals outlined
below. This program is described in Program
Announcement (PA) PAR-96-028, published in the NIH Guide
for Grants and Contracts, Vol. 25, No. 5, February 23, 1996.
AHCPR seeks to work with the research community in
collaboration with private and public organizations to generate
and disseminate information to assist health care
providers/practitioners, plans, purchasers, patients/consumers,
and policymakers to achieve the goals set out below:
- Help consumers make more informed choices.
Identify patient/consumer needs, preferences, and
uses of health care information; develop ways of
improving the salience of information provided
and consumers' ability to make decisions about
health care plans, providers, and services; and
assess the impact of improved consumer
information on the quality and effectiveness of
health care.
- Determine what works best in clinical practice.
Evaluate the effectiveness and patient outcomes
of alternative approaches to the prevention,
screening, diagnosis, treatment, and management
of clinical conditions; synthesize and analyze
evidence about effective clinical practice; and
establish the relative cost-effectiveness of
various treatments and strategies.
- Measure and improve the quality of care.
Develop more refined quality of care measures and
improvement strategies; test the validity and
reliability of measurement instruments and
facilitate their use in different delivery
settings and population subgroups; and assess the
use of measures and tools in performance
management systems and quality improvement
activities.
- Monitor and evaluate health care delivery.
Analyze major factors affecting health care
markets, such as health insurance, demographics,
and other demand factors, changing private and
public purchaser behavior, and changing legal and
regulatory structures; monitor and analyze
changes in the structure, organization and
financial arrangements in these markets and the
organizations within them; monitor and evaluate
the impact of changing markets on health care
delivery, access, quality, and cost; and develop
model data standards and comprehensive
information systems that facilitate study of how
the health care system is working.
Improve the cost-effective use of health care resources.
Clarify, standardize, and improve cost-benefit
and cost-effectiveness analysis tools which can
be used to better allocate resources; and develop
resource allocation and microsimulation models,
and other methodologies, which enable assessment
of both the intended and unintended social,
ethical, legal, and distributional effects of
resource allocation decisions.
- Assist health care policymaking.
Develop nationally representative information on
the use and costs of health services, including
personal and public health services and delivery
systems; and seek more efficient ways for public
and private entities to collect and interpret
health services data to enable systematic
analysis of the effects of changes in the health
care system on the health of the population and
the effectiveness of service delivery.
Build and sustain the health services research
infrastructure.
Promote primary data collection, as well as
secondary data analysis; and development of
research methodologies (methods, measures,
analytic tools) critical to advancement of the
field of health services research.
AHCPR particularly encourages projects on health issues that
affect minority populations, women, and children, including:
clinical conditions prevalent among racial/ethnic minority
populations or unique to age or gender; disparities in access to
care for minority groups; the impact of particular market changes
or delivery and financing arrangements on minority populations,
women, and children; and the unique health care needs of children
and other vulnerable populations.
The Program Announcement describes the
small project grant program, which provides support for focused
research projects, developmental studies, and high-risk projects.
High-risk projects might employ techniques or theories from other
fields not traditionally linked to health services research,
including qualitative as well as quantitative analyses.
This grant program is particularly relevant for new
investigators as a means of encouraging individuals to enter the
health services research field.
Projects addressing the goals may draw on any appropriate
data. A particularly rich data source is the Medical Expenditure
Panel Survey (MEPS) supported by AHCPR. Data from the Household
and Nursing Home components will be available for use by
researchers beginning in March 1997, and available annually
thereafter. Researchers who are interested in using these data
for analyses to address project areas are encouraged to do so.
Information on MEPS data is available from Karen Beauregard,
Center for Financing, Access, and Cost Trends, AHCPR, Telephone: (301)
427-1679. AHCPR also encourages the use of data from
providers, managed care organizations, employers, and other
industry sources.
Inquiries
Applicants may obtain copies of the grant application kit and
online from:
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/phs398.html
AHCPR welcomes the opportunity to clarify any issues or
questions from potential applicants. Direct inquiries regarding
program matters to the contacts listed by specific program areas
under Inquiries in the Program
Announcement.
Send Questions & Comments to:https://info.ahrq.gov
540 Gaither Road Rockville, MD 20850 