New AHRQ Views Blog Post: AHRQ’s COVID-19 Resources Provide Critical Support for Healthcare Professionals

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Today's Headlines:

• New AHRQ Views Blog Post: AHRQ’s COVID-19 Resources Provide Critical Support for Healthcare Professionals.
• Combining Gout Drug Colchicine and Antibiotic Clarithromycin Can be Fatal.
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network.
• Standard Approach to Measuring Depression Can Advance Quality of Care.
• Online Teaching Module Based on AHRQ Toolkit Boosts Learning About Health Literacy.
• New Research and Evidence From AHRQ.
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature.

New AHRQ Views Blog Post: AHRQ’s COVID-19 Resources Provide Critical Support for Healthcare Professionals

A new online resource from AHRQ that provides access to critical research and tools related to the COVID-19 pandemic is the subject of a blog post by Director Gopal Khanna, M.B.A. The resource was developed to support healthcare professionals in their effort to confront the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes tools and resources for improving clinical practice in hospitals, ambulatory care practices, nursing homes and other healthcare institutions; data resources and analyses to help decision-makers understand healthcare trends and identify opportunities for improvement; publications and resources developed by AHRQ grantees; and information on opportunities for research funding. To receive all blog posts, submit your email address and select “AHRQ Views Blog.”

Combining Gout Drug Colchicine and Antibiotic Clarithromycin Can be Fatal

Patients who receive both colchicine and clarithromycin may suffer life-threatening and sometimes fatal reactions, according to an AHRQ-funded study published in Drug Safety. Some of these interactions resemble other diseases, underscoring the importance of patients’ and providers’ awareness of potential risks. Colchicine, sold as Colcrys® and Mitigare®, is used to treat gout and familial Mediterranean fever in addition to other inflammatory conditions. Clarithromycin, sold as Biaxin®, is prescribed for bacterial respiratory infections and stomach ulcers. In their review of 58 reports of colchicine-clarithromycin interactions that resulted in adverse outcomes, researchers found 30 cases in which patients died, possibly from taking colchicine and clarithromycin concurrently. Access the abstract. 

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:

• Overcoming COVID-19: what can human factors and ergonomics offer?.
• Blueprint for restructuring a department of surgery in concert with the health care system during a pandemic: the University of Wisconsin Experience.
• Medically-necessary, time-sensitive procedures: a scoring system to ethically and efficiently manage resource scarcity and provider risk during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic: built environment considerations to reduce transmission.

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). 

Standard Approach to Measuring Depression Can Advance Quality of Care

Use of a standard approach for measuring depression in both clinical and research settings has the potential to significantly improve quality of care. In an AHRQ-sponsored study, funded by the Office of the Secretary Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund and published in Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers described a project to develop uniform measures that make it possible to link and compare data, enabling new depression research and quality improvement efforts. To identify standard measures, the researchers gathered inputs from organizations that collect depression data, conducted a literature review and convened a workgroup to narrow the list to 10 broadly relevant measures. Access the abstract of the study and a related AHRQ white paper, Standardized Library of Depression Outcome Measures.

Online Teaching Module Based on AHRQ Toolkit Boosts Learning About Health Literacy

An online teaching module based on AHRQ’s Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit helped master’s level occupational therapy (OT) students at Touro College, New York, increase their knowledge of health literacy concepts, according to a new AHRQ Impact Case Study. Nearly all (92 percent) of the students who completed the module said they were “extremely likely” or “likely” to recommend health literacy as part of the school’s OT curriculum. Access the Impact Case Study.

New Research and Evidence From AHRQ

• Allocation of Scarce Resources During Pandemics: Strategies for Policy Makers (Research Protocol).
• Masks for Prevention of COVID-19 in Healthcare and Community Settings (Research Protocol).
• No-Touch Modalities for Disinfection of Hospital/Acute Care Settings: A Rapid Evidence Review (Research Protocol).

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Development and validation of a penicillin allergy clinical decision rule. Trubiano JA, Vogrin S, Chua KYL, et al. JAMA Intern Med. 2020 May;180(5):745-52. Epub 2020 Mar 16. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Impact of socioeconomic status on incidence of end-stage renal disease and mortality after dialysis in adults with diabetes. Ke C, Kim SJ, Shah BR, et al. Can J Diabetes. 2019 Oct;43(7):483-9.e4. Epub 2019 Apr 17. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Caregivers' perceptions managing functional needs among older adults receiving post-acute home health care. Chase JD, Russell D, Rice M, et al. Res Gerontol Nurs. 2019 Jul 1;12(4):174-83. Epub 2019 Mar 25. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Rapid network meta-analysis using data from Food and Drug Administration approval packages is feasible but with limitations. Wang L, Rouse B, Marks-Anglin A, et al. J Clin Epidemiol. 2019 Oct;114:84-94. Epub 2019 Jun 18. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Effects of 2 forms of practice facilitation on cardiovascular prevention in primary care: a practice-randomized, comparative effectiveness trial. Persell SD, Liss DT, Walunas TL, et al. Med Care. 2020 Apr;58(4):344-51. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Systems engineering and human factors support of a system of novel EHR-integrated tools to prevent harm in the hospital. Dalal AK, Fuller T, Garabedian P, et al. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2019 Jun 1;26(6):553-60. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Using stakeholder engagement to develop a hospital-initiated, patient-centered intervention to improve hospital-to-home transitions for children with asthma. Parikh K, Hinds PS, Teach SJ. Hosp Pediatr. 2019 Jun;9(6):460-3. Epub 2019 May 8. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Association between Medicare expenditures and adverse events for patients with acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, or pneumonia in the United States. Wang Y, Eldridge N, Metersky ML, et al. JAMA Netw Open. 2020 Apr 1;3(4):e202142. Access the abstract on PubMed®.