PROGRAM EMPHASES FOR THE AHCPR SMALL PROJECT GRANT PROGRAM NIH GUIDE, Volume 26, Number 9, March 21, 1997 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: o 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. o 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. o 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. o 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. o 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. o 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. o 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 PA 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 Cost and Financing Studies, AHCPR, Telephone: (301) 594-1406, ext. 1460. 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 PA from: Global Exchange, Inc. 7910 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 400 Bethesda, MD 20814-3015 Telephone: (301) 656-3100 FAX: (301) 652-5264 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 PA. .
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