Conlon RFA-HS-12-006 Comparative effectiveness research (CER) and patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) are growing areas of research intended to produce information that will help providers and patients make the best medical decisions leading to better individual health outcomes. However, there is a lack of infrastructure for both the dissemination and implementation of knowledge gained from PCOR at the practice level. The American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) is proposing a PCOR/CER Learning Community for the dissemination of PCOR from the national to state to local level. AAPA will engage PA state chapters, who will then engage local clinical practices in the Learning Community. The learning community will include both a knowledge center and a learning network made up of 3 components: 1) local conferences conducted in partnership with state chapters for attendance in person or virtually; 2) on-line learning management system (includes applications such as webinars, on-line resources with potential for integration with EMR systems, professional open forums). 3) virtual expert networks that support case based learning sessions. While AAPA will engage PAs who will have direct access to the Learning Communities, the proposal aims to include all members of a patient-care team to make the greatest impact on practice based quality improvement. AAPA will pilot this proposed learning community with dissemination of and implementation support for preventive medicine practices as recommend by the U.S Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF). Over a three year time period this proposals aims to 1. Develop a dissemination model from the national to state to community level for CER or PCOR that leverages the AAPA's national networks of AAPA PA chapters; 2. Pilot this multi- modal PA learning community as a means of disseminating and improving adherence to preventive medicine practices as recommended by the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force; 3. Evaluate PA adoption and patterns of use of the learning network and its different modalities: their satisfaction with the network, participants' perception of its impact on their use of the disseminated evidence in patient care; 4. Develop a toolkit that can support replication and spread of the learning community.
Conlon RFA-HS-12-006 Creating a model and developing an infrastructure for the dissemination of CER and PCOR is not only important to impart new knowledge on health care professionals; but also has the potential to change provider behavior and impact practice based quality improvement. The American Academy of Physician Assistants has taken a lead role in transforming the traditional dissemination of knowledge to also include new innovative models that include a focus on engaging providers in a way that will lead to improved patient health outcomes.
