Group items tagged

This announcement solicits applications for the Rural Health Care Coordination Network Partnership Program (Care Coordination Program). The purpose of the Rural Health Care Coordination Network Partnership Program is to support the development of formal, mature rural health networks that focus on care coordination activities for the following chronic conditions: diabetes, congestive heart failure (CHF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Care coordination in the primary care practice involves deliberately organizing patient care activities and sharing information among all of the participants concerned with a patient¿s care to achieve safer and more effective care. Rural Americans are unhealthier, with higher rates of chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, CHF, and COPD and have higher rates of high-risk behaviors such as smoking, physical inactivity, and poor nutrition.[1],[2],[3],[4] These high-risk behaviors cause many of the illnesses, suffering and deaths due to chronic diseases and conditions.[5] The increasing prevalence of chronic diseases and the high cost of health care in the U.S. bring treatment of the ¿whole¿ person to the forefront, especially as there are often psychosocial (psychological and social) issues related to chronic diseases; for example, there is a link between diabetes and depression. In addition, more mental health problems are seen in the primary care setting than other health care settings; thus, integrating behavioral health care into primary care helps address both the physical and psychosocial aspects of health and wellness. Reviews and reports from the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHRQ) have shown a positive impact from integrating a team approach to care for a variety of disease conditions.[6] Health care coordination for people living with chronic conditions is vital to providing high quality care, especially in rural areas where access to health care is an issue. The main goal of care coordi

Health care professionals seek to ensure access to health care services in a manner that meets the standards set out in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's Triple Aim (http://www.ihi.org/Engage/Initiatives/TripleAim/Pages/default.aspx): by improving the patient experience of care, improving the health of populations, and reducing the per capita cost of health care. The transportation sector seeks to improve mobility and access for many trip purposes, including work, shopping, social, and, importantly, health care. Effective transportation to health care services addresses the patient experience in traveling to and from health care and helps to ensure patient access to services that lead to better health outcomes.

n 2016, ACC merged with the Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care (SCPC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the care and outcomes of patients worldwide facing the same complications. To preserve the legacy of SCPC, an endowment was created to support future cardiovascular quality or performance improvement initiatives, particularly those that underscore the importance of accreditation. To advance that mission, ACCF is accepting proposals that support cardiovascular quality improvement of cardiovascular care and patient outcomes. Awards of up to $100,000 will support projects that contribute to the evidence base for accreditation; develop or evaluate cardiovascular quality initiatives that strengthen the accreditation process; provide opportunities for education that support quality or performance improvement projects; improve EMS systems of care in collaboration with community hospitals providing accreditation services; or provide public health education to improve community measures/outcomes related to early recognition of heart attack symptoms and appropriate action steps.

A growing body of evidence demonstrates that good adherence to recommended medications can yield better clinical outcomes and reduce downstream medical spending for patients with chronic conditions. However, many people do not take their medications as prescribed. Closing the adherence gap is important for improving the quality of health care, encouraging better chronic care management, and promoting better outcomes. Our goal is to support research that will advance knowledge of innovative and effective approaches to improve medication adherence. Relevant research goals may include development or evaluation of policies, interventions, or tools that have potential to improve medication adherence.

A growing body of evidence demonstrates that good adherence to recommended medications can yield better clinical outcomes and reduce downstream medical spending for patients with chronic conditions. However, many people do not take their medications as prescribed. Closing the adherence gap is important for improving the quality of health care, encouraging better chronic care management, and promoting better outcomes. Our goal is to support research that will advance knowledge of innovative and effective approaches to improve medication adherence. Relevant research goals may include development or evaluation of policies, interventions, or tools that have potential to improve medication adherence.

The AHCJ Reporting Fellowships on Health Care Performance are intended to support U.S.-based applicants who have interesting projects in mind for their news outlets that hold the promise of informing and educating the public. Applicants should have a working knowledge of the topic and a good idea of what it will take to complete the project. The project could take several forms. The fellow could choose to evaluate a local health system or a specific local or regional program or an aspect of the national system. An approach might be to compare two health care systems addressing a common problem - access to care for poor and uninsured patients, for example - to see why one community is performing better and why. Fellows pursuing projects such as these would want to consider public data and relevant academic studies in addition to interviews with health care and civic leaders, patients and others.

PCORI is seeking applications to study the comparative effectiveness of alternate features of healthcare systems (e.g., innovative information technologies, personnel deployments, incentives, service designs, etc.) designed to optimize the quality, outcomes, and/or efficiency of care for the patients they serve.  Healthcare systems include:  private and public health insurance plans; physician groups; hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living facilities; academic medical centers; integrated delivery systems; community-based and safety-net clinics; federal, state, and municipal providers; and other entities organized to deliver, arrange, purchase, or coordinate healthcare services.  PCORI seeks studies that will provide information of value to patients, their caregivers and clinicians, as well as to healthcare leaders, regarding which features of systems lead to better patient-centered outcomes.

Developers and innovators have many great ideas and products that could improve the U.S. health care system and make life better for patients and care providers. However, effecting actual change is extremely difficult due to the high barriers to entry in the health IT space. Once an innovative new product has been developed, it needs to be tested in real-life care settings. But providers can be hesitant to host this testing for a myriad of reasons-they may have had bad experiences in the past, be anxious about deploying new tools that may disrupt their workflows, or be wary of encountering more problems than the solution solves. Without this testing, it cannot be determined how well the product actually works, making it difficult for the developers to identify the changes that need to be made to the product to make it more effective. Furthermore, without evidence of the uses a product can provide it is that much harder to acquire the venture funding that can fuel further advancement and lead to successful entry in the marketplace. The Market R&D Pilot Challenge is intended to help bridge this gap by bringing together health care organizations ("Hosts") and innovative companies ("Innovators") through pilot funding awards and facilitated matchmaking. The Challenge seeks to award pilot proposals in three different domains: Clinical environments (e.g., hospitals, ambulatory care, surgical centers), public health and community environments (community-based personnel such as public health departments, community health workers, mobile medical trucks, school- and jail-based clinics), and consumer health (e.g., self-insured employers, pharmacies, laboratories). Hosts and Innovators will submit joint pilot proposals, with the winners, as determined by an expert panel, proceeding to implement their pilots.

Despite the growing interest and rapid pace of recent achievements, not much is known with a high degree of confidence about the strategies and interventions that might reduce diagnostic failures and patient harms or enhance the resilience and safety of diagnostic work. This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) solicits applications from research institutions and their investigators to conduct Health Services Research Demonstration and Dissemination Projects (R18) to evaluate strategies and interventions for reducing diagnostic failures and patient harms, including approaches that enable organizations, providers and patients to better anticipate emerging diagnostic risk before failure and harm occurs.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) issued by the Fogarty International Center (FIC) seeks to stimulate innovative ideas and impactful research to better understand the complexities around developing appropriate approaches for effective diagnosis, prevention, therapeutic interventions and integrated clinical care for HIV-associated non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). Specifically, this initiative will support research in the following areas: a) Basic sciences to address etiopathogenesis of NCDs in Persons Living with HIV (PLWH); b) Aging process in PLWH; c) Diagnostics tools for early detection of NCDs in PLWH; d) Therapeutic interventions to explore optimal drug regimens for PLWH with NCDs; e) Behavioral studies for better quality of life of PLWH with NCDs; and f) Clinical studies for better patient centered care for PLWH with NCDs. The R21 grant mechanism is intended to encourage exploratory/developmental research by providing support for the early and conceptual stages of project development and assessing feasibility of the proposed studies (https://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/r21.htm ). It is hoped that this preliminary research will lay the foundation for larger studies that can lead to applications to other organizations or NIH institutes that support HIV-associated NCD research.

The purpose of this program is to provide funding to states to enhance/expand their treatment service systems to increase capacity and provide accessible, effective, comprehensive, coordinated care, and evidence-based medication assisted treatment (MAT) and recovery support services to individuals with opioid use disorders seeking or receiving MAT. As a result of this program, SAMHSA seeks to: 1) increase the number of individuals receiving MAT services with pharmacotherapies approved by the FDA for the treatment of opioid use disorders; 2) increase the number of individuals receiving integrated care; and 3) decrease illicit drug use at 6-months follow-up. For the purpose of this RFA, integrated care is defined as the organized delivery and/or coordination of medical, behavioral or social and recovery support services provided to individual patients in order to produce better overall health outcomes for people that may have multiple healthcare needs. MAT is defined as the use of FDA-approved opioid agonist medications (e.g., methadone, buprenorphine products including buprenorphine/naloxone combination formulations and buprenorphine mono-product formulations) for the maintenance treatment of opioid use disorder and opioid antagonist medication (e.g., naltrexone products including extended-release and oral formulations) to prevent relapse to opioid use. MAT includes screening, assessment (which includes determination of severity of opioid use disorder, including presence of physical dependence and appropriateness for MAT) and case management. MAT is to be provided in combination with comprehensive substance use disorder treatment, including but not limited to: counseling, behavioral therapies and when needed pharmacotherapy for co-occurring alcohol use disorder. MAT is to be provided in a clinically driven, person-centered and individualized setting. Priority will be given to states (listed in Appendix V) that have not only demonstrated a high rate of primary treatme

he desired outcomes include: 1) an increase in the number of admissions for MAT; 2) an increase in the number of clients receiving integrated care/treatment; 3) a decrease in illicit opioid drug use at six-month follow-up; and 4) a decrease in the use of prescription opioids in a non-prescribed manner at six-month follow-up. For the purpose of this FOA, integrated care/treatment is defined as the organized delivery and/or coordination of medical (including the use of Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs [buprenorphine, methadone, extended release injectable naltrexone] for addiction), behavioral, social, peer, and other recovery support services provided to individual patients who have multiple healthcare needs in order to produce better overall health outcomes.

The Foundation for Physical Therapy Research is dedicated to improving the quality and delivery of patient care by providing support for scientifically based and clinically relevant research related to the effectiveness of physical therapist practice. To that end, the foundation is accepting Letters of Intent for its Magistro Family Research Grant. Through the program, grants of up to $100,000 will be awarded to research projects focused on evaluating the effectiveness of interventions most commonly delivered by physical therapists, as determined by current practice standards, as well as those focused on the development of innovative physical therapist interventions. Priority will be given to studies that examine not only the therapeutic effectiveness of interventions but also their cost effectiveness. FPTR supports only studies in which the interventions are provided by physical therapists or select components of the intervention are provided by physical therapist assistants under the direction and supervision of physical therapists.