AHRQ Seeks Study Proposals for Putting Research to Work on Quality in Health Care

Media Advisory Date: January 7, 2000

The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) are seeking demonstration projects that facilitate consumer and patient use of information on quality in health care. These projects should develop and test methods and models for developing information on quality for consumer and patient use in health care decisions; and evaluate the impact of strategies to provide information about quality to consumers and patients. AHRQ and NCI are especially interested in projects that focus on vulnerable populations as defined by the President's Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry.

AHRQ expects to award up to $1.0 million and NCI expects to award up to $0.5 million in fiscal year 2000 to support the first year total costs of approximately 3 to 4 projects under this Request for Applications (RFA). Letters of intent are due by February 11, 2000, and applications are due by March 24, 2000.

The RFA draws on the outcome of the December 1998 conference, "Making Quality Count: Helping Consumers Make Better Health Care Choices." The conference was coordinated by AHRQ, the Health Care Financing Administration, and the Office of Personnel Management, as part of the activities of the Quality Interagency Coordination Task Force (QuIC). The goal of the QuIC is to ensure that all Federal agencies involved in purchasing, regulating, providing, or studying health care are working in a coordinated way toward the common goal of improving quality of care.

To access the RFA, "Making Quality Count for Consumers and Patients," online, select: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/rfa-hs-00-002.html. The RFA and application forms also are available from AHRQ's Publications Clearinghouse at P.O. Box 8547, Silver Spring, MD 20907; phone: (800) 358-9295.

For more information, please contact AHRQ Public Affairs, (301) 427-1364: Salina V. Prasad, (301) 427-1864 (SPrasad@ahrq.gov).

Internet Citation:

AHRQ Seeks Study Proposals for Putting Research to Work on Quality in Health Care. Media Advisory, January 7, 2000. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/news/press/pr2000/qualrfa.htm