In 2006, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) awarded more than $5 million for 19 new grants under its Improving Patient Safety Through Simulation Research portfolio. The 19 projects focus on assessing and evaluating the roles that simulation can play to improve the safe delivery of quality health care. Simulation provides a safe environment for health care practitioners, teams, and systems to improve the safety of health care without placing patients at risk. These projects will inform providers, health educators, payers, policymakers, patients, and the public about the effective use of simulation in improving patient safety.
Evaluation of the System for Teamwork Effectiveness
and Patient Safety
Principal Investigator: Shelia
Chauvin, M.Ed., Ph.D.
Description: This project implements an interdisciplinary
simulation-based training designed to improve teamwork and patient safety in
operating room environments including a mobile strategy that brings training to
clinicians in their work settings.
Applicant Institution: Louisiana State University Health
Sciences Center;
New Orleans, LA
Grant No.: RHS016680-01
Year 1
Funding: $263,890
Simulation Training for Ultrasound Guided Central
Venous Catheter (CVC) Insertion
Principal Investigator: Leigh
Evans, M.D.
Description: This project focuses on evaluating the efficacy of a structured simulation
training protocol using ultrasound-guided CVC insertion for resident physicians.
Applicant Institution: Yale University;
New Haven, CT
Grant No.: HS016725-01
Year 1 Funding: $298,444
Preparing Rural and Urban Hospitals to Improve Safety
Culture through Simulation
Principal Investigator: David Gaba, M.D.
Description: Working with
multidisciplinary teams from high-hazard units, such as emergency departments
and intensive care units, this project
focuses on implementing simulation training to improve the safety culture in
rural and urban hospitals.
Applicant Institution: Stanford University;
Stanford, CA
Grant No.: HS016630-01
Year 1 Funding: $277,305
Using Team Simulation to Improve Error Disclosure to
Patients and Safety Culture
Principal Investigator: Thomas
Gallagher, M.D.
Description: This project
implements simulation training focused on team-communication and patient
disclosure that targets physicians and nurses from diverse practice settings in
hospitals and a health maintenance organization.
Applicant Institution: University of Washington;
Seattle, WA
Grant No.: HS016658-01
Year 1 Funding: $299,249
Reducing Errors in the Diagnosis of Melanoma using an
Intelligent Tutoring System
Principal Investigator: Dana Grzybicki, M.D., Ph.D.
Description: This project aims to improve the diagnostic accuracy
of community generalist pathologists in the identification of malignant
melanoma through the use of a cognitive simulation system.
Applicant Institution: University of Pittsburgh;
Pittsburgh, PA
Grant No.: HS016657-01
Year 1
Funding: $276,029
Evaluating the Clinical Impact of Simulation and Team Training on Obstetric
Safety
Principal Investigator:
Jeanne-Marie Guise, M.D.. M.P.H.
Description: This project examines
the use of a standardized training curriculum for simulated obstetric emergencies
and crew resource management for multidisciplinary teams in rural hospital settings
which also includes patient perspectives on obstetric safety issues.
Applicant Institution: Oregon Health and
Science University,
Portland, OR
Grant No.: HS016673-01
Year 1 Funding: $299,999
Emergency Department Simulation for Research and
Training in Health Care Information Technology
Principal Investigator: Li Lin, Ph.D.
Description: This project uses simulation-based training on
patient tracking systems in emergency departments and focuses on designing a
safe transition from physical systems to electronic medical record-based
tracking systems.
Applicant Institution: University at Buffalo—The State University
of New York; Buffalo, NY
Grant No.: HS016672-01
Year 1 Funding: $295,274
Simulation Training for Acute
Coronary Syndrome Management for Rural Providers
Principal Investigator: John Messenger, M.D.
Description: To improve safety for high-risk cardiac patients, this project implements
simulated "case-scenario" training aimed at the recognition and management of
acute myocardial infarction patients presenting to rural providers and hospital
teams.
Applicant Institution: University of Colorado at Denver & Health
Sciences Center; Denver CO
Grant No.: HS016682-01
Year 1 Funding: $189,896
Clinical
Decision Support Simulations for Medication Administration Safety
Principal Investigator: Jacqueline
Moss, Ph.D., R.N.
Description: This project focuses on improving safe medication
administration by providing nurses with tools to conduct simulations for the design of computerized decision support
tools and electronic medical records.
Applicant
Institution: University of Alabama—Birmingham; Birmingham, AL
Grant No.: HS016660-01
Year 1 Funding: $221,623
Acute Care Management Skills: An Assessment Program
for Graduate Physicians
Principal Investigator: David
Murray, M.D.
Description: This project implements simulation training for
medical students and interns on 15 acute care events in order to assess their competency
and communication skills with health care teams and nurses.
Applicant Institution: Washington University School of Medicine; St. Louis, MO
Grant No.: HS016652-01
Year 1 Funding: $214,130
Improving Patient Safety
with Just-in-Time Pediatric Simulation Training
Principal Investigator: Vinay Nadkarni, M.D.
Description: This project focuses
on "just-in-time" simulation overtraining for individuals and
multidisciplinary teams during pediatric airway management.
Applicant Institution: The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia;
Philadelphia, PA
Grant No.: HS016678-01
Year 1 Funding: $294,003
In Situ Teamwork Training and Detection of Safety Threats in High Risk
Settings
Principal Investigator: Mary
Patterson, M.D., M.Ed.
Description: In this project, all health care providers
participate in critical teamwork simulations to validate simulation as a method
to detect latent safety threats and to embed teamwork
training in the emergency department of a pediatric hospital.
Applicant Institution: Cincinnati Children's
Hospital and Medical Center; Cincinnati, OH
Grant No.: HS016615-01
Year 1 Funding: $294,521
Improving Resuscitation Team Response to Inpatient Critical Events by
Simulation
Principal Investigator: Jose
Pliego, M.D.
Description: This project implements a teamwork training
curriculum which uses high-fidelity simulations to train multidisciplinary
rapid response teams in communication to improve safety in a rural tertiary
care hospital.
Applicant Institution: Scott and White
Hospital; Temple, TX
Grant No.: HS016634-01
Year 1 Funding: $300,000
In Situ Simulation to Detect and Prevent
Near Misses During Critical Events
Principal Investigator: William Riley, M.D.
Description: To improve patient safety for women and children, this interdisciplinary teamwork
project uses a high-fidelity simulation strategy in perinatal
units to identify "near misses" for emergent C-sections based on emergencies
abstracted from real sentinel events.
Applicant Institution: University of Minnesota;
Minneapolis, MN
Grant No.: HS016728-01
Year
1 Funding: $248,677
Evaluating the Impact of Simulated Team Training on Patient Safety
Principal Investigator: Daniel Scott, M.D.
Description: To
improve the safety of high-volume surgeries, this project evaluates the role of
team training using bench model simulations, focused team training learning
sessions, and real-life simulations in a virtual operating room that will
facilitate the transfer of trained skills from a simulation environment to the
work environment.
Applicant Institution: University of Texas
Southwestern Medical
Center; Dallas, TX
Grant No.: HS016667-01
Year 1 Funding: $299,938
Immersive Simulation Team Training Impact on Rescue,
Recovery, and Safety Culture
Principal Investigator: Stephen Small, M.D.
Description: Through involvement of diverse team members, this
project focuses on immersive simulation-based team training with video feedback
for interdisciplinary rapid response teams and includes standardized patient
and family members at an urban hospital.
Applicant Institution: University of Chicago;
Chicago, IL
Grant No.: HS016664-01
Year 1 Funding: $248,497
Virtual Health Care Environments Versus
Traditional Interactive Team Training
Principal Investigator: Jeffrey Taekman, M.D.
Description: This project compares a three-dimensional network
virtual reality simulation with interactive team training to demonstrate how
high-technology simulations can contribute to teaching safe behaviors.
Applicant Institution: Duke University;
Durham, NC
Grant No.: HS016653-01
Year 1 Funding: $169,873
Simulation-Based Training Program to Augment
Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Based
Hand-off Tool
Principal Investigator: John Vozenilek, M.D.
Description: This project seeks to reduce communication errors
during patient hand-offs in the
emergency department by implementing a patient-specific checklist based on an electronic
medical record, and by testing the effect of companion simulation-based
training.
Applicant Institution: Evanston Northwestern Healthcare; Evanston, IL
Grant No.: HS016640-01
Year 1 Funding: $285,099
Simulation Training for Rapid Assessment and Improved
Teamwork
Principal Investigator: Matthew Weinger, M.D.
Description: This project focuses on using simulation to evaluate
and improve safe communication and coordination between anesthesia providers
and nurses during care transitions and hand-offs between the operating room and
the post-anesthesia care unit.
Grant No.: HS016651-01
Year 1 Funding: $295,873
Current as of November 2006
Internet Citation:
Improving Patient Safety Through Simulation Research. November 2006. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/simulproj.htm
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