HIV Research Network: Patient Interviews, Patient Safety, and Future Directions

On September 10, 2001, the HIV Research Network (consisting of HIV care providers) convened a meeting in Washington, DC. The meeting's purpose was to provide an overview of the Network's current status and determine ways in which its activities might apply to priorities of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

The HIV Research Network is one of the core, enduring projects for which the AHRQ will continue to identify funding, according to John M. Eisenberg, M.D., AHRQ Director. Dr. Eisenberg gave an overview of AHRQ's current activities and priorities.

HIV Research Network: Developing a Multisite HIV Resource Utilization Database

The HIV Research Network is a network of HIV providers who pool data and collaborate on research to provide policymakers and investigators with timely information about the access to and cost, quality, and safety of, HIV care; and to share information and best practices in the Network. The Network is sponsored by: AHRQ, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Office of AIDS Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.

In Year 1, the Network:

• Established the central data-coordinating center at Johns Hopkins University.
• Identified participating sites and HIV clinical and resource use data availability and needs.
• Established confidentiality procedures.
• Collected pilot data.
• Created a compatible, multisite database.

Year 2 activities included:

• Expert meetings to identify priority policy-relevant issues in HIV.
• Continued data collection.
• Preliminary data analyses.
• Development and pretest of a patient interview schedule.
• Development of an interactive data querying system.

Patient Safety Research in AHRQ

Dr. James Battles of AHRQ's Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety described AHRQ's activities in patient safety. Many more people die from medical errors than from automobile, workplace, or airplane accidents. The goals of patient safety are to reduce the risk of injury caused by treatment to patients and remove or minimize the hazards that increase risk. To address patient safety, AHRQ has become the lead agency for the Quality Interagency Coordination (QuIC) Task Force and established a new request for applications programs in patient safety.

Safe Care for HIV Patients: Is it Different?

Until recently, the priority in healthcare was to provide good care, but safety needs to become "Job 1." In spite of the recent activity by Federal and State governments, professional societies, healthcare purchasers, and nonprofit organizations, much more needs to be done at the local level, including:

• Learning to think in systems terms.
• Eliminating the culture of blame.
• Ensuring accountability.

The HIV health care system can serve as a model for chronic disease care because if HIV disease can be treated safely under much more difficult conditions, so can many other diseases.

For more information about the HIV Research Network, select Partnerships.

Current as of March 2002

Internet Citation:

HIV Research Network: Patient Interviews, Patient Safety, and Future Directions. Center for Organization and Delivery Studies. March 2002. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/about/cods/hivnetwk.htm

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