AHRQ and National Institute on Drug Abuse Advocate for Research To Advance Equity in Substance Use Disorder Treatment

AHRQ Stats: Highest Healthcare Spenders

In 2019, the top 1 percent of people who spent the most on their healthcare accounted for about 21 percent of total healthcare expenditures, while the bottom 50 percent accounted for only 3 percent of expenditures. (Source: AHRQ, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Statistical Brief #540, Concentration of Healthcare Expenditures and Selected Characteristics of High Spenders, U.S. Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population, 2019.)

Today's Headlines:

• AHRQ and National Institute on Drug Abuse Advocate for Research To Advance Equity in Substance Use Disorder Treatment.
• AHRQ Seeking Nominations to National Advisory Council.
• New Assessment Will Support Development of Open-Source Care Plan for People With Multiple Chronic Conditions.
• Grantee Profile Highlights the Research of Rupa Valdez, Ph.D., To Reduce Healthcare Disparities Among Priority Populations and People With Disabilities.
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network.
• AHRQ Releases Learning Module To Help Nursing Home Staff Lead by Example.
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature.

AHRQ and National Institute on Drug Abuse Advocate for Research To Advance Equity in Substance Use Disorder Treatment

An equity-focused research agenda can reduce disparities in treatment of substance use disorders (SUDs) and improve health outcomes, according to a new commentary in The New England Journal of Medicine. Experts from AHRQ and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), along with NIDA’s director and AHRQ’s deputy director, discuss barriers to equity in the treatment of SUDs and opportunities to reduce inequity. The commentary identifies five steps to ensure that research contributes to reducing disparities:

• Ensure that researchers and research funders include racial and ethnic minorities in the development of prevention and treatment interventions.
• Recruit a broad range of members of racial and ethnic minority groups within research studies.
• Establish equitable partnerships with people who have or have had SUDs, as well as their families, clinicians, policymakers, payers and advocates, and engage these groups in study design and evidence production.
• Diversify the scientific workforce.
• Measure the effects of policies and interventions on equity.

Access the article.

AHRQ Seeking Nominations to National Advisory Council

AHRQ is seeking nominations for new members to join its National Advisory Council (NAC). The NAC advises AHRQ’s director and the Secretary of Health and Human Services on activities proposed or undertaken to carry out AHRQ's statutory mission. The agency seeks diverse representation geographically and across priority and underrepresented populations. NAC members meet three times a year. Applicants should submit a resume and statement of service before the July 5 deadline. Nominations (including self-nominations) should be forwarded to Jaime Zimmerman, M.P.H., P.M.P., at NationalAdvisoryCouncil@ahrq.hhs.gov. Access the Federal Register notice for more information. 

New Assessment Will Support Development of Open-Source Care Plan for People With Multiple Chronic Conditions

An assessment of existing care plans is being used to inform the development of an interoperable, open-source electronic care plan for use by patients, caregivers and clinicians to improve care for people with multiple chronic conditions (MCC). Care plans can be difficult to share across settings and among team members, thereby compromising care for people with MCC who often receive care from multiple clinicians in multiple settings. Researchers from AHRQ and the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, who are developing an interoperable shared e-care plan, assessed seven electronic care plans and three healthcare data standards projects, finding that while none met all criteria for an optimal plan, each provides infrastructure that can advance toward the vision of the comprehensive e-care plan. Access the abstract to the study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

Grantee Profile Highlights the Research of Rupa Valdez, Ph.D., To Reduce Healthcare Disparities Among Priority Populations and People With Disabilities

AHRQ’s newest grantee profile features Rupa Valdez, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical informatics in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia. Her AHRQ-funded research is helping inform the design of health information technology solutions to help reduce healthcare disparities among diverse and ethnic groups, as well as people with disabilities. Dr. Valdez studies the design characteristics that reflect a wider range of human experiences and ergonomic best practices to meet patients’ needs outside hospital walls. Access Dr. Valdez’s profile and the profiles of other AHRQ grantees.

Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network

AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network (PSNet) highlights journal articles, books and tools related to patient safety. Articles featured this week include:

• Association of inappropriate outpatient pediatric antibiotic prescriptions with adverse drug events and health care expenditures.
• A call to action: next steps to advance diagnosis education in the health professions.
• Can a targeted educational approach improve situational awareness in paramedicine during 911 emergency calls?

Review additional new publications in PSNet’s current issue or access recent cases and commentaries in AHRQ’s WebM&M (Morbidity and Mortality Rounds on the Web).

AHRQ Releases Learning Module To Help Nursing Home Staff Lead by Example

AHRQ has released a new learning module to help teach nursing home staff how to boost morale, build trust, create a positive work environment and practice open communication at work. It reviews these and other important steps that all nursing home staff can take to lead and mentor others. Access the module.

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Implementing an electronic health record dashboard for safe anticoagulant management: learning from qualitative interviews with existing and potential users to develop an implementation process. Barnes GD, Sippola E, Ranusch A, et al. Implement Sci Commun 2022 Feb 2;3(1):10. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Applying population health approaches to improve safe anticoagulant use in the outpatient setting: the DOAC Dashboard multi-cohort implementation evaluation study protocol. Barnes GD, Sippola E, Dorsch M, et al. Implement Sci 2020 Sep 21;15(1):83. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Dashboards for visual display of patient safety data: a systematic review. Murphy DR, Savoy A, Satterly T, et al. BMJ Health Care Inform 2021 Oct;28(1):e100437. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Sexual orientation and gender identity data reporting among U.S. health centers. McDowell A, Myong C, Tevis D, et al. Am J Prev Med 2022 Jun;62(6):e325-32. Epub 2022 Feb 26. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

A task analysis of central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) surveillance in home infusion therapy. Hannum SM, Oladapo-Shittu O, Salinas AB, et al. Am J Infect Control 2022 May;50(5):555-62. Epub 2022 Mar 24. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Considerations when aggregating data to measure performance across levels of the health care system. Reeves SL, Dombkowski KJ, Madden B, et al. Acad Pediatr 2022 Apr;22(3s):S119-24. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Does a rural community-based intervention improve knowledge and attitudes of opioid use disorder and medication-assisted treatment? A report from the IT MATTTRs study. Curcija K, Zittleman L, Fisher M, et al. J Rural Health 2022 Jan;38(1):120-8. Epub 2020 Nov 26. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Older adults' personal health information management: the role and perspective of various healthcare providers. Bosold AL, Lin SY, Taylor JO, et al. AMIA Annu Symp Proc 2022 Feb 21;2021:255-64. Access the abstract on PubMed®.