HCFO and AHRQ's missions direct each organization not only to fund research on health care costs, organizations, markets, and productivity, but also to disseminate it to policymakers. The President's 2011 Budget, in particular, identifies federal policymakers as a """"""""critical audience"""""""" for AHRQ. The activities for this grant are premised on the finding that successful dissemination requires multiple, complex pathways to reach policy audiences. This confluence of interests, along with the complimentary strengths of each organization, creates a strong rationale for a partnership between AHRQ and HCFO that extends the capacity of both for effective, efficient dissemination. AcademyHealth's HCFO Team proposes a series of convening activities to help assure the timely dissemination of relevant research on health care costs, organizations, markets, and productivity to the policy audiences who need it to implement health reform and develop new policy. Specifically, this project will: 1) establish a sentinel mechanism to identify current and emerging policy issues concerning health care costs, organizations, markets, and productivity for which well-done relevant research exists;2) identify the most current, well-done research on health care costs, organizations, markets, and productivity supported by all major funders of such work;and 3) create opportunities for dialogue among researchers and policymakers about the implications and limitations of relevant existing research findings for the policy questions identified and to identify agendas for future research. AcademyHealth's HCFO team will hold two invitational dissemination meetings of 25-40 participants each year of this grant. A broadly representative advisory committee will meet annually to identify and prioritize meeting topics based on (1) current policy relevance, with a particular emphasis on the implementation of health reform (2) availability of relevant evidence from research and (3) gaps in previous dissemination efforts. Members of the advisory committee will also advise staff about the agenda and invitation list for each meeting. Participants will include researchers with appropriate expertise drawn from the broadest array of institutions as well as federal, state, and local policy intermediaries and representatives appropriate to each topic. Each meeting will synthesize available evidence and identify important gaps for future study. The meetings will result in background papers, issue briefs, and webinars to be made available through the internet. Evaluations of each meeting will be used to refine the approach and topics of subsequent meetings. In interim and final reports, AcademyHealth will evaluate the grant using information from participant surveys, internet statistics, and feedback from the advisory committee.
AcademyHealth seeks a Large Conference Support grant to partner with AHRQ to extend the capacity of both organizations to effectively and efficiently disseminate the research on health care costs, organizations, markets, and productivity to inform the implementation of health reform and development of new policy. This project will convene two invitational dissemination meetings of 25-40 high-level policy """"""""intermediaries"""""""" and research experts per year over three years to synthesize evidence on current and emerging policy issues and to identify important gaps for future research to address. The meetings will result in background papers, issue briefs, and webinars to be made publicly available through the internet.
