AHRQ's Career Development and Postdoctoral Training Awards for Comparative Effectiveness Research
Fact Sheet
This fact sheet describes awards made by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 to support trainees who are focusing on comparative effectiveness research. Funding to support these projects was provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment of 2009.
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Contents
Introduction
Comparative Effectiveness Research
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
Programs
More Information
Introduction
The mission of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) 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 research activities. AHRQ is committed to fostering the next generation of health services researchers who will focus their time and expertise on some of the most important problems facing our Nation's health care system.
This fact sheet describes awards made by AHRQ in FY 2010 to support trainees who are focusing on comparative effectiveness research. Funding to support these projects was provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment of 2009.
Comparative Effectiveness Research
AHRQ has been involved in comparative effectiveness research for many years. Since 2005, this work has been coordinated and supported through the Agency's Effective Health Care Program, which was authorized under Section 1013 of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003.
Comparative effectiveness research—now also called patient-centered health research—compares the benefits and harms of different interventions and strategies to prevent, diagnose, treat, and monitor health conditions in "real world" settings. The purpose of this research is to improve health outcomes by developing and disseminating evidence-based information to patients, clinicians, and other decisionmakers about which interventions are most effective for which patients under specific circumstances. The Effective Health Care Program provides systematic reviews, supports new research to fill information gaps, and develops other translational information and tools designed to inform health care decisionmaking.
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
In FY 2009, AHRQ received funds through the Recovery Act to build on its existing collaborative Effective Health Care Program. In response to the Recovery Act and recognizing the importance of enhancing research capacity and infrastructure, AHRQ will support two types of institutional research training and career development grants in FY 2010. These projects will focus on preparing new investigators to conduct comparative effectiveness research. Support will be provided to individuals who have clinical or research doctoral degrees and are focusing their research on the development and translation of new scientific evidence and analytic tools. In particular, the emphasis of these projects will be on developing and enhancing research and methodological capacities for carrying out comparative effectiveness research, integrating evidence into practice, and facilitating decisionmaking in the health care system.
Programs
The Mentored Clinical Scientists Comparative Effectiveness Development Program (K12). This program provides support to institutions for the development of health services and clinical researchers who have made a commitment to focus their research on the translation and dissemination of new scientific evidence and analytical tools in comparative effectiveness. These awards will provide 3 years of supervised study and research for one cohort of individuals who have clinical and research doctoral degrees. The program provides salary support for an intensive, mentored research career development experience. Seven institutions received awards:
- University of Alabama at Birmingham; Kenneth Saag, MD, Principal Investigator; AHRQ grant K12 HS019465.
- University of Colorado, Denver; Anne Libby, PhD, Principal Investigator; AHRQ grant K12 HS019464.
- Duke University; Eugene Oddone, MD, Principal Investigator; AHRQ grant K12 HS019479.
- New York University School of Medicine; Ronald S. Braithwaite, MD, Principal Investigator; AHRQ grant K12 HS019473.
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Morris Weinberger, PhD, Principal Investigator; AHRQ grant K12 HS019468.
- Oregon Health and Science University; Jeanne-Marie Guise, MD, MPH, Principal Investigator; AHRQ grant K12 HS019456.
- University of Pittsburgh; Wishwa Kapoor, MD, Principal Investigator; AHRQ grant K12 HS019461.
- University of Washington; Sean Sullivan, PhD, Principal Investigator; AHRQ grant K12 HS019482.
Institutional National Research Service Award (NRSA) Postdoctoral Comparative Effectiveness Development Training Program (T32). In 2008, AHRQ made awards to 28 U.S. academic institutions through the National Research Service Award (NRSA) program to support advanced training to students with a strong interest in research careers. These institutions were given a competitive opportunity to expand these already established activities to support the postdoctoral training of health services and clinical researchers who have made a commitment to focus their research in comparative effectiveness. These awards will provide 2 years of supervised study for two cohorts of individuals with clinical and research doctoral degrees. The program will combine a mix of didactic, career development, mentoring, and hands-on research experiences. Six institutions received these awards:
- University of Alabama at Birmingham; Kenneth Saag, MD, Principal Investigator; AHRQ grant T32 HS019463.
- Brown University; Vincent Mor, PhD, Principal Investigator; AHRQ grant T32 HS019657.
- Children's Hospital, Boston; Jonathan Finkelstein, MD, Principal Investigator; AHRQ grant T32 HS019485.
- Duke University; David Edelman, MD, Principal Investigator; AHRQ grant T32 HS019490.
- Johns Hopkins University; Anne Duggan, ScD, Principal Investigator; AHRQ grant T32 HS019488.
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Timothy Carey, PhD, Principal Investigator; AHRQ grant T32 HS019442.
- University of Pittsburgh; Kevin Kraemer, MD, Principal Investigator; AHRQ grant T32 HS019486.
More Information
For more information about the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, please visit the AHRQ Web site at http://www.ahrq.gov. Go to http://effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov to learn more about AHRQ's Effective Health Care Program.
For more detailed information about the various training and career development programs supported by AHRQ, please visit http://www.ahrq.gov/funding/training-grants/index.html.
For specific programmatic information, please contact:
Shelley Benjamin, MSW
Health Scientist Administrator
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville, MD 20857
301-427-1528
Shelley.Benjamin@ahrq.hhs.gov
