The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued several solicitations in recent weeks focused on health information technology R&D. AHRQ appears to be taking a fairly broad view of health IT:

Health IT is broadly defined as the use of information and communication technology in health care to support the delivery of patient or population care or to support patient self-management.  Health IT can support patient care related activities such as order communications, results reporting, care planning and clinical or health documentation (Shortliffe EH and JJ Cimino, “Biomedical Informatics: Computer Applications in Health Care and Biomedicine.” Third Edition. 2006).  Examples of health IT applications are electronic health records (EHR), electronic medical records (EMR), personal health records (PHR), telemedicine, clinical alerts and reminders, computerized provider order entry, computerized clinical decision support systems, consumer health informatics applications, and electronic exchange of health information.

The solicitations include funding for:

• Large research projects (using the R01 award mechanism) aimed at “elucidating the nature of cognition, task distribution, and clinical work in various health care delivery settings.” These research projects will “address current knowledge gaps regarding our understanding of health care providers’ information needs and health care decision making processes, both individually and collectively, and as a health care team (composed of doctors, nurses, therapists, and administrative staff).” There are four areas of interest: (a) the nature of clinical work in context; (b) the nature of clinical expertise in individual and team decision making; (c) the nature of data visualization to support skill-based, rule-based, and knowledge-based cognitive control for the health care team; and (d) understanding how the health care team manages missing data or data of questionable validity or accuracy when making health care decisions. This solicitation expires July 6, 2014, and standard R01 submission dates apply (i.e., February 5, June 5, and October 5 for new submissions).

• Large research projects (also using the R01 award mechanism) aimed at “building a knowledge base of individuals’ personal health information management (PHIM) needs and practices and the design principles related to these activities.” A specific goal is “to bridge the chasm that currently exists between consumer health IT designers and the users themselves, by bolstering basic research to better understand users’ PHIM practices, needs, and goals as they are intrinsically shaped by an array of contextual factors.” There are five areas of interest: (a) the needs and preferences of diverse user groups in different contexts; (b) user goals, activities, and personal health information management practices; (c) user capacities (e.g., cognitive, physical, health literacy); (d) user motivation (including beliefs and preferences); and (e) identifying “expert” user groups (e.g., frequent health care consumers and their caregivers) and studying them as models. This solicitation also expires in July 2014, with standard R01 submission dates applying until then.

• Career development grants (K01, K02, and K08 award mechanisms) and dissertation grants (R36) that will support career development of clinical and research doctorates. The objective here is to further health IT research that will (a) improve the quality and safety of medication management; (b) support patient-centered care; and (c) improve health care decision making. Career development grant applications will be funded for 3-5 years; dissertation grant applications will be funded for 9-17 months. Click here for submission dates.

To learn more about these funding opportunities, click the links above. And be sure to help spread the word to your colleagues!

(Contributed by Erwin Gianchandani, CCC Director)