The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is the component of HHS whose mission is “to improve the safety and quality, efficiency and effectiveness of health care for all Americans.”   Children are one of the agency’s congressionally stipulated priority populations as are other populations and areas of interest to the MCH Section and APHA in general; other areas of interest include racial and ethnic minorities, women, individuals with special health care needs, low-income people, and inner-city and rural areas.

AHRQ supports research, focusing primarily on quality improvement implementation such as patient safety improvement and initiatives using health information technology.   While the agency has general program announcements, we also issue requests for applications  and special emphasis notices to focus the research community on topics of critical importance to improving U.S. health care quality and reducing disparities (see our Web site at http://www.ahrq.gov/fund/grantix.htm).    The child health research community has been very successful in responding to AHRQ announcements.   This year, for example, new extramural projects were funded as part of a set of ambulatory safety and quality request for applications, for example:

·         development and evaluation of an integrated health information system for children, parents, and primary care providers;

·         surveillance for adverse drug events in ambulatory pediatrics;

·         automating assessment of asthma care quality;

·         evaluation of telemedicine for children with special health care needs;

·         development of an integrated engineering-based model to reduce infections in intensive care units; and

·         assessment of the effect of emergency department overcrowding on the quality of asthma care for children.

More projects will be announced later in the fiscal year.  We encourage research into productive linkages between mainstream health care delivery and public health, as well.   Our public health preparedness portfolio has been very active in pediatrics. For more information, visit http://www.ahrq.gov/research/pedprep/resource.htm.

AHRQ maintains an interest in access, this year funding an evaluation of the role of national awareness campaigns in children’s participation in public health insurance.    AHRQ has an active intramural and extramural research program on the topic of insurance coverage for children.  For more information on these programs, see http://www.ahrq.gov/child/insurbib.htm and http://www.ahrq.gov/chiri/.

A more comprehensive listing of extramural “new starts” for fiscal year 2007 will be posted on AHRQ’s Web site in mid-winter -- visit http://www.ahrq.gov/child/fundprj.htm for reports from the previous year.  The agency also has a state and country map online, which facilitates finding child health services research in local areas -- visit http://www.ahrq.gov/child/usamap.htm.   In response to suggestions from stakeholders who want to know not only what we fund but what the results are, several links are available, including http://www.ahrq.gov/child/childpubs.htm and http://www.ahrq.gov/research/childfind/.  Finally, to track the state of children’s health care quality and disparities, children are included in AHRQ’s National Healthcare Quality and Disparities reports, including State snapshots, at http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/measurix.htm.  To receive regular information continue about child health activities at AHRQ, sign up for our child health LISTSERV at http://www.ahrq.gov/child/flyrlist.htm.