Announcements

Grant final reports now available from NTIS

The following grant final reports are now available from the National Technical Information Service (NTIS). Each listing identifies the project's principal investigator, his or her affiliation, grant number, and project period and provides a brief description of the project.

Records of documents archived at NTIS—including many AHRQ documents and final reports from all completed AHRQ-supported grants—can now be searched on the new NTIS Web site. For information about findings from the projects described here, please access the relevant final reports at the NTIS Web site. Also, all items in the database from 1997 to the present can be downloaded from the NTIS Web site. Go to www.ntis.gov for more information.

Editor's Note: In addition to these final reports, you can access information about these projects from several other sources. Most of these researchers have published interim findings in the professional literature, and many have been summarized in Research Activities during the course of the project.

To find information presented in back issues of Research Activities, select Search Research Activities . To search for information, enter either the grant or contract number or the principal investigator's last name in the query line. A reference librarian can help you find related journal articles through the National Library of Medicine's PubMed®.

Nursing Home Outcomes as Quality Indicators, Kathleen Cagney, M.A., University of Chicago, IL. AHRQ grant HS09827, project period 9/30/98-9/29/00.

These researchers examined quality differentials for a multi-State census of nursing homes. Analyses indicate that nursing homes with lower than expected mortality outcomes have a greater proportion of residents who use antidepressants and a smaller ratio of residents to nursing staff. nursing homes with higher than expected mortality outcomes have a disproportionate number of residents with feeding tubes and a higher number of black residents. Comparisons of this type, incorporating both resident-level and institutional characteristics, may assist policymakers in identifying opportunities for intervention. (Abstract, executive summary, and final report, NTIS accession no. PB2005-107594; 32 pp, $29.50 paper, $14.00 microfiche are available from NTIS.)

Assimilation of Information to Support Decisions, Francois Sainfort, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison. AHRQ grant HS09975, project period 9/30/98-6/30/01.

This project involved the design of a cutting-edge Web-based system that applied information editing techniques to help consumers use all potential information available when making a health plan choice. Researchers compared use of this customizable display of information on costs, benefits, quality, rules, and choice of providers with static presentations of information using two media: a Web-based system without customization and paper. They also evaluated the various approaches for differences in the choices made, satisfaction with the decisionmaking process, and knowledge and understanding. (Abstract, executive summary, and final report, NTIS accession no. PB2005-108299; 116 pp, $38.00 paper are available from NTIS.)

Multi-institutional Test Bed for Clinical Vocabulary, Christopher G. Chute, M.D., Ph.D., Mayo Foundation, Rochester, MN. AHRQ grant HS08751, project period 9/30/94-9/29/98.

Researchers examined whether clinical descriptions of patients could be compared among different care environments and demonstrated the critical importance of having comparable patient data. They enhanced development of terminologies that are used by many health care providers and fostered the development of clinical concept navigation tools for integration into clinical record systems. (Abstract and final report, NTIS accession no. PB2005-103109; 12 pp, $26.50 paper, $14.00 microfiche are available from NTIS.)

Quality Outcomes in Subacute and Home Care Programs, John N. Morris, Ph.D., Hebrew Rehabilitation, Boston, MA. AHRQ grant HS09455, project period 9/30/96-9/29/00.

The goals of this project were to operationalize and evaluate eight key performance measures for subacute and home care programs, identify covariance-risk factors for these measures, establish profiles of these measures in disease groups, and evaluate the performance of the measures. The measures included Activities of Daily Living, mobility, cognitive performance, communication, bowel continence, bladder continence, pain, and mood symptoms. Researchers operationalized seven of eight outcome measures. Bowel incontinence was not operationalized due to the extreme rarity of this outcome in the subacute population. (Abstract, executive summary, and final report, NTIS accession no. PB2005-106484; 24 pp, $23.50 paper, $14.00 microfiche are available from NTIS.)

Functional Outcomes in Patients with Hip Fractures, Albert L. Siu, M.D., Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York. AHRQ grant HS09459, project period 930/96-9/29/02.

These researchers demonstrated the validity of functional status as a quality measure by showing that specific patient care activities (processes of care) could influence functional outcomes and that providers could improve certain functional outcomes by changing the way they deliver care. (Abstract and final report, NTIS accession no. PB2005-106485; 20 pp, $26.50 paper, $14.00 microfiche are available from NTIS.)

Pediatric Disaster Preparedness and Response Conference, David S. Markenson, M.D., Columbia University, New York. AHRQ grant HS13855, project period 9/30/02-9/29/03.

Children have needs that are often poorly considered and rarely studied in disaster planning and response. This conference was held to develop research methodologies and a research plan on the needs of children during disasters. The specific goals were to build a coalition of experts and professional organizations from the fields of pediatrics, disaster planning, emergency medicine, emergency response, trauma, and mental health and to identify States that have existing disaster plans and experience with a recent disaster to solicit their participation. The major result of the conference was a set of recommendations and guidelines to address the particular vulnerabilities of children to terrorist attacks or disasters and possible responses. (Abstract, executive summary, and final report, NTIS accession no. PB2005-103045; 60 pp, $31.50 paper, $14.00 microfiche are available from NTIS.)

PEAT: Pediatric Emergency Assessment Tool, Marc Gorelick, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. AHRQ grant HS11395, project period 9/30/00-9/29/03.

The primary objective of this study was to develop and validate a predictive model to be used as a risk-adjustment tool when evaluating outcomes of pediatric emergency care. The model uses information readily available and routinely recorded at the time of triage to predict the intensity of services required. (Abstract, executive summary, and final report, NTIS accession no. PB2005-105208; 34 pp, $29.50 paper, $14.00 microfiche are available from NTIS.)

Quality Measures for Severe/Persistent Mental Illness, Richard C. Herman, McLean Hospital, Beaumont, MA. AHRQ grant HS10303, project period 9/30/99-3/31/03.

Researchers accomplished several goals toward advancing the status of quality measurement of mental health care. First, they developed a national inventory of 310 process measures for quality assessment of mental health and substance-related care, including specifications, rationales, evidence bases, and conformance and testing results. Second, using a formal consensus development process and a framework for measure selection, they led a multi-stakeholder panel in the selection of 28 core measures for further development and testing. Third, they tested the feasibility and validity of selected core measures. The inventory of quality measures is available in a searchable database at www.cqaimh.org. (Abstract, executive summary, and final report, NTIS accession no. PB2005-105209; 98 pp, $34.00 paper, $20.00 microfiche are available from NTIS.)

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