Creating a 21st-century health information infrastructure to improve health care can only be done in collaboration with affected parties. AHRQ works closely with Federal, State, local, and private partners to leverage investments in health IT. AHRQ brings a long history of health IT and patient safety research and investment, strength in producing and evaluating evidence, and a culture of information-sharing, to our partnerships. Some of our key partners are listed here:
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) AHRQ collaborates closely with CMS on grants to perform pilot testing of the standards used in electronic prescribing. AHRQ is involved in the evaluation of the effects of CMS's Medicare Care Management Performance Demonstration, in which physicians in four States will be paid to use health IT and evidence-based outcome measures. In addition, AHRQ works with CMS's Doctors' Office Quality-Information Technology (DOQ-IT) project, which promotes the adoption of electronic health record and IT systems in small and medium-sized physician practices.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) AHRQ has been a strong supporter of FDA efforts to improve patient safety through the standardization of information and tracking of the effects of clinical interventions. These efforts include structured product labeling, electronic product listing, substance registration, and standardized listing of drug ingredients.
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) HRSA and AHRQ have an important Federal partnership in care delivery for underserved and vulnerable populations. With the essential and comprehensive programs providing access to health care services managed by HRSA, and the health services research, health IT infrastructure building, and other evidence translation programs administered by AHRQ, complementary expertise is brought to bear on the uniquely challenging aspects of transforming care for specific populations. Both operating divisions of HHS work closely with priority underserved populations, including rural and minority populations, women, and children. Through its health IT Portfolio, AHRQ has worked closely with HRSA's Office of Rural Health Policy, Office for the Advancement of Telehealth, and Bureau of Primary Health Care.
Indian Health Service (IHS) AHRQ and the IHS are working to modernize the Service's electronic health record. IHS has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to share the IHS electronic health record system.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) AHRQ partners with National Institutes of Health (NIH) to advance clinical research through the use of health IT. An improved health information infrastructure can greatly assist in the conduct of research, while protecting individual patient rights and confidentiality. AHRQ and NIH are co-sponsoring workshops that bring together the clinical research community and health IT adopters.
Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) ONC's mission is to implement President Bush's vision for widespread adoption of interoperable electronic health records by 2014. AHRQ is partnering with ONC to study security and privacy issues around health information exchange.
Standards Collaboration In addition, AHRQ has been a long-term partner and investor in efforts to develop health data content, terminology, and exchange standards across health care application areas. AHRQ strongly supports the work of leading standards development organizations and HHS partners, such as the National Library of Medicine (NLM), FDA, and the Health IT Standards Panel.
Regional Health Information Exchanges Recent interest in health information exchange has fostered many conversations among organizations interested in collaboration to exchange clinical data. Working with State governments and communities, AHRQ has been engaging with regional initiatives through technical assistance telephone calls, meetings, and workshops. AHRQ brings the expertise of its program staff, grantees, and contractors to facilitate regional discussions and spread the lessons learned from across the country.
Foundations and Private Partners AHRQ partners with the private sector to fund and conduct research in health IT, to participate in discussions, and to disseminate findings. A partial list of partners includes:
A computer-generated message generated when specific criteria are met; e.g., entry of a critically abnormal laboratory test value generates a warning message to the care provider who ordered the test.
The American Medical Association (AMA) is an organization of physicians which works on the most important professional and public health issues including health information technology (HIT).
The American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) is an organization dedicated to the development and application of biomedical and health informatics in support of patient care, teaching, research, and health care administration.
Ambulatory medical record system (AMRS), which is a clinical information system that supports the functions of an outpatient clinic, generally including registration, appointment scheduling, order entry, reporting of results, clinical documentation, and billing.
The American Nurses Association (ANA) is a professional organization representing registered nurses with the goal of advancing the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice and lobbying Congress and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public, including the use of information technology (IT) in nursing practice.
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) oversees the creation, promulgation, and use and thousands of standards and guidelines, in nearly every sector of the economy, in order to strengthen the U.S. market in the world economy and to improve the health and safety of consumers.
A computer program designed to help physicians in the proper ordering of antibiotics.
The Arden Syntax standard, which is maintained by HL7, is a coding scheme which provides a standard means for writing rules designed to relate specific patient situations to appropriate actions.
Application Service Provider (ASP) is a type of client-server installation where a business hosts computer-based services for customers to access across a network, such as electronic health record (EHR) solutions accessed over the Internet.
A mode of communication in which exchange of data does not require both parties to be actively involved at the same time.
Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) is a network protocol for sending small, fixed-length packets of data over network connections.
A record of all accesses and updates to medical data, which is generally maintained in chronological order, which is used to promoted accountability of access to the data.
A process for the positive identification of system users; this process is used to control access to the system.
A process for limiting user access and activities to only the actions deemed appropriate for that user.
The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) is the national association of family doctors; its mission is to improve the health of patients, families, and communities which includes the introduction and use of health information technology (HIT).
A level of encoding of medical data which involves reviewing the data and labeling the data based on an item from a terminology.
A security function in which users are responsible for their access to and use of medical information. The users must have a right to know and a need to know the information they access.
Time between learning sessions when teams work on improvements within their organization. The teams are supported by collaborative faculty/staff.
An adverse drug event (ADE) is an unexpected or dangerous reaction to a drug.
Admission-discharge-transfer (ADT), which is a component of a health information system (HIS) designed to maintain and update the hospital census.
Computer software designed to operate with a degree of autonomy from its programmer (e.g., an agent may be used to search the Internet for specified information).
The American Hospital Association (AHA) is the national organization representing all types of hospitals, health care networks, and their patients plus communities. It strives to ensure that its members’ perspectives and needs are addressed in national health policy development, legislative and regulatory debates, and judicial matters; this includes issues related to health information technology (HIT).
The American Health Information Community (AHIC) is a federal government advisory body chartered to provide recommendations to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on how to accelerate the development and adoption of health information technology (HIT).
The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) is a professional organization devoted to improving healthcare by advancing best practices and standards for health information management (HIM).
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is the lead federal government agency charged with improving the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans. As one of 12 agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), AHRQ supports health services research that will improve the quality of health care and promote evidence-based decision making.
This refers to the amount of data that can be transmitted over a communication channel in a given period of time.
A measurement obtained prior to an intervention and used for comparison to post-intervention measurements.
The College of American Pathologists (CAP) is a professional organization of pathologists which fosters and advocates excellence in the practice of pathology and laboratory medicine. It was responsible for developing the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED).
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