Harmonized Registry Developed for Atrial Fibrillation Patients

AHRQ Stats: Monitoring Exams for Adults Diagnosed With Diabetes

In 2015-16, an annual average of 89 percent of white adults diagnosed with diabetes had their blood cholesterol checked, compared with 83 percent of black adults and 82 percent of Hispanic adults. (Source: AHRQ, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Statistical Brief #518: Treatment and Monitoring of Adults with Diagnosed Diabetes by Race/Ethnicity, 2015-2016.) 

Today's Headlines

• Harmonized Registry Developed for Atrial Fibrillation Patients.
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network..
• AHRQ Seeks Examples of Impact for Development of Case Studies.
• AHRQ's "Questions Are the Answer" Offers Videos About the Importance of Two-Way Communication in Health Care.
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature. 

Harmonized Registry Developed for Atrial Fibrillation Patients

AHRQ-funded researchers seeking to standardize information gleaned from patient registries for atrial fibrillation were able to consolidate more than 100 outcomes measures into 20 measures, according to a new AHRQ report. The measures, found in 13 existing atrial fibrillation registries, were categorized by survival, clinical response, events of interest, resource utilization and patient-reported outcomes. The consolidation was an important step forward in the effort to standardize atrial fibrillation registries, which have used different outcome measures that are difficult to compare. This project builds on prior AHRQ-funded work to develop an Outcome Measures Framework that classifies outcomes across most conditions. Researchers recommended pilot testing of the harmonized measures and acknowledged that a major barrier in using them entailed mapping existing data to the new measures and updating registry infrastructure. They also said more work was needed to improve data collection of the patient’s perspective through patient-reported outcomes. Access AHRQ’s report and the abstract to an article in HeartRhythm.

Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network

AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network (PSNet) highlights journal articles, books and tools related to patient safety. Articles featured this week include:

• Scaling safety: the South Carolina Surgical Safety Checklist experience.
• Adverse events and patient outcomes among hospitalized children cared for by general pediatricians vs hospitalists.
• Adverse Events in Long-Term-Care Hospitals: National Incidence Among Medicare Beneficiaries.
• Framework for Effective Board Governance of Health System Quality.

Review additional new publications in PSNet’s current issue or access recent cases and commentaries in AHRQ’s WebM&M (Morbidity and Mortality Rounds on the Web).

AHRQ Seeks Examples of Impact for Development of Case Studies

Has your organization used an AHRQ tool to improve patient care, make a culture change or save costs? The agency would like to learn more about your use of AHRQ resources to develop Impact Case Studies. Since 2004, the agency has developed more than 400 Impact Case Studies that illustrate AHRQ’s contributions to health care improvement. Available online and searchable via an interactive map, Impact Case Studies help to tell the story of how AHRQ-funded research findings, data and tools have made an impact on the lives of millions of American patients. To help us share your impact story, send a short description of how and where AHRQ resources were used, along with your contact information, to ImpactCaseStudies@ahrq.hhs.gov.

AHRQ's "Questions Are the Answer" Offers Videos About the Importance of Two-Way Communication in Health Care

"Questions Are the Answer," AHRQ's ongoing public education initiative that stresses the importance of two-way communication to help make medical appointments more efficient and to help ensure accurate diagnoses, offers an array of two-minute video messages by a dozen real-life patients, caregivers and clinicians. The videos, which stress the importance of asking questions about your health care, are ideal for group presentations or for patient waiting room areas. Watch patients such as Christina Cyphers discuss how asking questions about her medicines helped her get the correct diagnosis and feel better. Ramona Seidel, M.D. explains how a simple question such as "Is it OK to take this over-the-counter medicine?" can save one’s life, and pediatric cardiologist Linda Bradley-Tiernan, M.D., talks about how she brings a list of questions to her own appointments with her physician. Access the menu of videos that are designed to promote safer care and better health outcomes.

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Prevention of late-life dementia: no magic bullet. Larson EB. Ann Intern Med 2018 Jan 2;168(1):77-9. Epub 2017 Dec 19. Access the abstract on PubMed^®.

Update on the methods of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force: methods for understanding certainty and net benefit when making recommendations. Krist AH, Wolff TA, Jonas DE, et al. Am J Prev Med 2018 Jan;54(1S1):S11-S18. Access the abstract on PubMed^®.

U.S. Preventive Services Task Force methods to communicate and disseminate clinical preventive services recommendations. Kurth AE, Krist AH, Borsky AE, et al. Am J Prev Med 2018 Jan;54(1S1):S81-S87. Access the abstract on PubMed^®.

Cardiovascular comorbidities of pediatric psoriasis among hospitalized children in the United States. Kwa L, Kwa MC, Silverberg JI. J Am Acad Dermatol 2017 Dec;77(6):1023-9. Epub 2017 Sep 28. Access the abstract on PubMed^®.

The independent effect of cancer on outcomes: a potential limitation of surgical risk prediction. Leeds IL, Canner JK, Efron JE, et al. J Surg Res 2017 Dec;220:402-9.e6. Epub 2017 Sep 18. Access the abstract on PubMed^®.

Evaluating metrics of responsiveness using patient-reported outcome measures in chronic rhinosinusitis. Lidder AK, Detwiller KY, Price CP, et al. Int Forum Allergy Rhinol 2017 Feb;7(2):128-34. Epub 2016 Nov 7. Access the abstract on PubMed^®.

SGIM-AMDA-AGS consensus best practice recommendations for transitioning patients' healthcare from skilled nursing facilities to the community. Lindquist LA, Miller RK, Saltsman WS, et al. J Gen Intern Med 2017 Feb;32(2):199-203. Epub 2016 Oct 4. Access the abstract on PubMed^®.

Refining prognosis for intracerebral hemorrhage by early reassessment. Maas MB, Francis BA, Sangha RS, et al. Cerebrovasc Dis 2017;43(3-4):110-6. Epub 2017 Jan 4. Access the abstract on PubMed^®.