AHRQ Views Blog Post: Re-imagining AHRQ’s Insight Platform

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Today's Headlines:

• AHRQ Views Blog Post: Re-imagining AHRQ’s Insight Platform.
• Self-Reliant Patients Less Likely To Use Opioids.
• AHRQ Grantee Profile Highlights Work of Michael Parchman, M.D., M.P.H., To Improve Primary Care With Team-Based Strategies.
• Study Finds Promise in Nondrug Options To Treat Breathlessness in Advanced Cancer.
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network.
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature.

AHRQ Views Blog Post: Re-imagining AHRQ’s Insight Platform

Ongoing efforts to create an “AHRQ Insight Platform” that provides essential healthcare data to policymakers, healthcare systems and analysts, researchers, payers and clinicians is the subject of a new blog post by agency Director Gopal Khanna, M.B.A., and Joel Cohen, Ph.D., director of the agency’s Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends. Significant gaps in our knowledge about the healthcare system have been revealed by the COVID-19 crisis. AHRQ is building upon its data assets, including the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and the Healthcare Costs and Utilization Project (HCUP), to deliver information and evidence-based answers to pressing questions about the healthcare system. Efforts have focused on enhancing data in three critical areas: detailed medical claims, physician supply and social determinants of health. A deep understanding of data in these and other areas is essential to a true 21st-century healthcare system. Access the blog post. To receive all blog posts, submit your email address and select “AHRQ Views Blog.”

Self-Reliant Patients Less Likely To Use Opioids

Adults with self-reliant attitudes about their health are less likely to start and more likely to discontinue opioid use, according to a study by AHRQ researchers published in Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy. Researchers’ findings were based on 2014 to 2017 responses to AHRQ Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) questions that asked patients if they agreed with the statements: “I do not need health insurance,” and “I can overcome illness without help from a medically trained person.” In addition to finding that self-reliant patients, both with and without chronic pain, were less likely to use opioids, researchers also found that patients who exercised were less likely to choose analgesic treatment for their pain. Furthermore, among opioid users with no chronic pain, those with poor self-reported mental health were less likely to discontinue opioids than those with good self-reported mental health. Researchers concluded that these findings on patients’ choices on whether to use opioids can help clinicians guide patients toward nonopioid treatment. Access the abstract.

AHRQ Grantee Profile Highlights Work of Michael Parchman, M.D., M.P.H., To Improve Primary Care With Team-Based Strategies

Check out AHRQ’s latest grantee profile featuring the work of Michael Parchman, M.D., M.P.H., a professor at the University of Washington’s Schools of Medicine and Public Health in Seattle and a senior investigator at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute. Dr. Parchman has helped primary care clinical teams improve care for patients with chronic conditions by promoting adoption of team-based strategies. This team-based approach was also instrumental in another AHRQ-funded project to improve delivery of care to patients with chronic pain on long-term opioids. Access more about Dr. Parchman’s work as well as additional AHRQ profiles.

Study Finds Promise in Nondrug Options To Treat Breathlessness in Advanced Cancer

Nonpharmacologic treatments such as fans and acupressure modestly improved breathlessness in patients with advanced cancer, an AHRQ-funded study found. Breathlessness, a frequent and debilitating symptom for advanced cancer patients, causes anxiety and significantly reduces quality of life. The study, published in JAMA Oncology, found that treatments such as fan therapy and bilevel ventilation, involving a combination of ventilator-delivered and patient-taken breaths, improved breathlessness in inpatient settings. Complementary medicine approaches such as acupressure improved the condition in outpatient settings. Since pharmacologic interventions are potentially harmful and have limited effectiveness, the study’s authors recommended consideration of nonpharmacologic options as a first-line treatment, depending on individual patients’ needs and preferences. Access the article, which is based on an AHRQ-funded systematic review.

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:

• Higher incidence of adverse events in isolated patients compared with non-isolated patients: a cohort study.
• Development of rapid response capabilities in a large COVID-19 alternate care site using Failure Modes and Effect Analysis with in situ simulation.
• Weekend effect on in-hospital mortality for ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke in US rural and urban hospitals.

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 in the Professional Literature

Mothering in the NICU: a qualitative exploration of maternal engagement. Klawetter S, Neu M, Roybal KL, et al. Soc Work Health Care 2019 Sep;58(8):746-63. Epub 2019 Jun 20. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Enhanced care planning and clinical-community linkages versus usual care to address basic needs of patients with multiple chronic conditions: a clinician-level randomized controlled trial. Krist AH, O'loughlin K, Woolf SH, et al. Trials 2020 Jun 11;21(1):517. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Checklist design reconsidered: understanding checklist compliance and timing of interactions. Kulp L, Sarcevic A, Zheng Y, et al. Proc SIGCHI Conf Hum Factor Comput Syst 2020 Apr;2020. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Provision of social services and health care quality in US community health centers, 2017. Kranz AM, Mahmud A, Agniel D, et al. Am J Public Health 2020 Apr;110(4):567-73. Epub 2020 Feb 20. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Inpatient hospital performance is associated with post-discharge sepsis mortality. Mohr NM, Zebrowski AM, Gaieski DF, et al. Crit Care 2020 Oct 27;24(1):626. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

The impact of decision aids on adults considering hip or knee surgery. Hurley VB, Rodriguez HP, Kearing S, et al. Health Aff 2020 Jan;39(1):100-7. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Assessment of receipt of the first home health care visit after hospital discharge among older adults. Li J, Qi M, Werner RM. JAMA Netw Open 2020 Sep;3(9):e2015470. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

The association between patient-reported clinical factors and 30-day acute care utilization in chronic heart failure. Chen J, Sadasivam R, Blok AC, et al. Med Care 2020 Apr;58(4):336-43. Access the abstract on PubMed®.