New Blog Post: AHRQ at 20, AHRQ in 20—Looking Back to Look Ahead

AHRQ Stats: Brand-Name and Generic Drugs

From 2011 to 2016, the share of filled prescriptions that were nonspecialty, single-source, brand-name drugs decreased from 22 to 11 percent while nonspecialty generic equivalents increased from 72 to 83 percent. (Source: AHRQ, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Research Findings #44: Retail Drug Prices, Out-of-Pocket Costs, and Discounts and Markups Relative to List Prices: Trends and Differences by Drug Type and Insurance Status, 2011 to 2016 [PDF].) 

Today's Headlines:

• New Blog Post: AHRQ at 20, AHRQ in 20—Looking Back to Look Ahead.
• Consolidation Trends Highlighted in AHRQ's Updated Compendium of U.S. Health Systems.
• AHRQ Grantee Profile: Raj Ratwani, Ph.D., Streamlines Health IT Systems To Reduce Medical Errors.
• Highlights From AHRQ's Patient Safety Network.
• AHRQ Projects Featured at 12th Annual Dissemination and Implementation Science Conference.
• New Methods Research Reports From AHRQ.
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature.

New Blog Post: AHRQ at 20, AHRQ in 20—Looking Back to Look Ahead

In a new AHRQ Views blog post, Director Gopal Khanna, M.B.A., poses important questions as the agency approaches its 20th anniversary: How can AHRQ fulfill the dream of a safer and higher-quality healthcare system? And how can the agency help to shape health services research to anticipate and respond to tomorrow's unmet needs? Reflecting on the agency's legacy, Director Khanna notes that AHRQ has supported more than 3,000 researchers and awarded more than $3.1 billion funding since its establishment on Dec. 6, 1999. In subsequent years, the agency's lead role in patient safety and other activities helped tackle some of the nation's most urgent healthcare problems. AHRQ's current priority areas—health systems research, practice improvement, and data and analytics systems—position the agency for more impact in the years to come. Access the blog post. To receive all blog posts, submit your email address and select "AHRQ Views Blog." 

Consolidation Trends Highlighted in AHRQ's Updated Compendium of U.S. Health Systems

A new version of AHRQ's Compendium of U.S. Health Systems provides first-time data that allow researchers, policymakers and healthcare administrators to assess patterns in health system consolidation as well as changes in the landscape of health systems over time. A new Health Affairs blog cites 2018 data that's been added to the compendium and highlights key characteristics of U.S. health systems:

• Of 637 health systems in the United States, most operated in a single state and were owned by a nonprofit organization or a state or local government.
• There was substantial variation in system size, including a small number of very large for-profit and church-operated systems that operated in two or more states.
• The largest health systems had more than 10,000 hospital beds and/or 10,000 physicians.

The compendium was developed by AHRQ's Comparative Health System Performance Initiative, which studies how healthcare delivery systems promote evidence-based practices and patient-centered outcomes research in delivering care. 

AHRQ Grantee Profile: Raj Ratwani, Ph.D., Streamlines Health IT Systems To Reduce Medical Errors

Our newest grantee profile features Raj Ratwani, Ph.D., director of the MedStar Health National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare and associate professor at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. Dr. Ratwani investigates ways to develop health information technology (IT) tools and processes that help clinicians keep patients safe while maximizing quality and efficiency. He has focused on how well-designed and properly implemented health IT systems can transform how care is delivered. Learn more about his research and access the profiles of other AHRQ grantees. 

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:

• Safety climate, safety climate strength, and length of stay in the NICU.
• Critical errors in infrequently performed trauma procedures after training.
• De-prescribing as a Clinical Improvement Focus.

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 Projects Featured at 12th Annual Dissemination and Implementation Science Conference

AHRQ staff and grantees will present their work at the National Institutes of Heatlh/AcademyHealth 12th Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation in Health, December 4–6, at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Virginia. The event will showcase 40 AHRQ-funded projects that have improved the safety and quality of healthcare. Projects will be presented in workshops, oral sessions, discussion forums and poster sessions. Access more information about the conference.

New Methods Research Reports From AHRQ

• Translation of a C. difficile Treatment Clinical Pathway Into Machine-Readable Clinical Decision Support Artifacts Prototyped for Electronic Health Record Integration.
• Performance and Usability of Machine Learning for Screening in Systematic Reviews: A Comparative Evaluation of Three Tools.
• Assessing the Accuracy of Machine-Assisted Abstract Screening With DistillerAI: A User Study.

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Decomposing changes in the growth of U.S. prescription drug use and expenditures, 1999-2016. Selden TM, Abdus S, Miller GE. Health Serv Res 2019 Aug;54(4):752-63. Epub 2019 May 9. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Public insurance expansions and smoking cessation medications. Maclean JC, Pesko MF, Hill SC. Econ Inq 2019 Oct;57(4):1798-1820. Epub 2019 May 7. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Adherence to the AWHONN staffing guidelines as perceived by labor nurses. Simpson KR, Lyndon A, Spetz J, et al. Nurs Womens Health 2019 Jun;23(3):217-23. Epub 2019 May 2. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Adverse events associated with nonsurgical treatments for urinary incontinence in women: a systematic review. Balk EM, Adam GP, Corsi K, et al. J Gen Intern Med 2019 Aug;34(8):1615-25. Epub 2019 May 6. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Understanding the heterogeneity of labor and delivery units: using design thinking methodology to assess environmental factors that contribute to safety in childbirth. Sherman JP, Hedli LC, Kristensen-Cabrera AI, et al. Am J Perinatol 2019 Apr 23. [Epub ahead of print.] Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Clinician perspectives on electronic health records, communication, and patient safety across diverse medical oncology practices. Patel MR, Friese CR, Mendelsohn-Victor K, et al. J Oncol Pract 2019 Jun;15(6):e529-36. Epub 2019 Apr 22. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Safety and ergonomic challenges of ventilating a premature infant during delayed cord clamping. Lapcharoensap W, Cong A, Sherman J, et al. Children (Basel) 2019 Apr 13;6(4). Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Epidemiology of quick sequential organ failure assessment criteria in undifferentiated patients and association with suspected infection and sepsis. Anand V, Zhang Z, Kadri SS, et al. Chest 2019 Aug;156(2):289-97. Epub 2019 Apr 9. Access the abstract on PubMed®.