April 16, 2024, Issue #909

AHRQ Stats: Distribution of Healthcare Expenditures

In 2021, the top 1 percent of people with high expenses accounted for 24 percent of all healthcare expenditures, while the bottom 50 percent of people with high expenses accounted for less than 3 percent of expenditures. (Source: AHRQ Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Statistical Brief #556, Concentration of Healthcare Expenditures and Selected Characteristics of Persons With High Expenses, United States Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population, 2018-2021.)

Today's Headlines:

• AHRQ Views: New Guide Helps Developers and Users of Digital Healthcare Technologies Advance Equity
• Researchers Identify Targets To Guide Antibiotic Prescribing by Dentists
• Webinar on May 2 Will Focuses on Primary Care Workforce Research Methods
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network
• Apply by April 20 to Serve on AHRQ National Advisory Council
• Register for May 8 Webinar on Feedback Methods To Complement Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Survey Data
• New Research and Evidence From AHRQ

AHRQ Views: New Guide Helps Developers and Users of Digital Healthcare Technologies Advance Equity

A new AHRQ Views blog post highlights an important addition to the agency’s digital healthcare resources: Digital Healthcare Equity Framework: A Practical Guide for Implementation. The guide, released during National Minority Health Awareness Month, further advances AHRQ’s aim to advance equity via digital healthcare technologies and solutions. In the last 10 years, AHRQ has invested more than $89 million across 153 research projects focused on reducing healthcare disparities. Last November, AHRQ experts presented a research and action agenda for health services research to advance equity in care. AHRQ’s new guide for creating and using digital healthcare technologies and solutions to advance equity has been included among the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Equity in Action resources. Access the blog post authored by AHRQ Director Robert Otto Valdez, Ph.D., M.H.S.A.; AHRQ Senior Advisor Kevin Chaney, M.G.S.; and NCQA Director of Health Equity Initiatives Bryan O. Buckley, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., M.B.A. To receive all blog posts, submit your email address.

Researchers Identify Targets To Guide Antibiotic Prescribing by Dentists

An AHRQ-funded study published in the Journal of Public Health Dentistry identified key facilitators and barriers influencing dentists’ antibiotic prescribing behaviors and found that dentists need improved access to antibiotic prescribing guidelines and additional support in uncertain dental scenarios. A series of interviews conducted with dentists from the U.S. National Dental Practice-Based Research Network explored patient and practice factors perceived to affect antibiotic prescribing. Researchers found many areas for potential intervention to support appropriate and cautious dental antibiotic prescribing, with key broad targets that include increasing visibility and accessibility to current guidelines, providing new guidance to cover unique scenarios, and facilitating better communication with patients and other healthcare providers. Access the abstract.

Webinar on May 2 Will Focuses on Primary Care Workforce Research Methods

Register now for a webinar on May 2 from noon to 1:15 PM ET, Research Methods for Studying the Primary Care Workforce. Sponsored by AHRQ’s National Center for Excellence in Primary Care Research, the webinar will feature three grantees who have developed methodologies to understand the optimal structure and composition of primary care teams and measure the impacts of adding nurse practitioners into primary care. Following presentations in which they describe the primary and secondary data sources used to answer research questions, presenters will be available to answer attendees’ questions.

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:

• Crowdsourcing a diagnosis? Exploring the accuracy of the size and type of group diagnosis: an experimental study.
• Drug-drug interactions and actual harm to hospitalized patients: a multicentre study examining the prevalence pre- and post-electronic medication system implementation.
• Decreasing prescribing errors in antimicrobial stewardship program-restricted medications.

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).

Apply by April 20 to Serve on AHRQ National Advisory Council

AHRQ is seeking nominations for new members to join its National Advisory Council (NAC), which advises AHRQ’s director and the secretary of Health and Human Services on AHRQ's efforts to fulfill its statutory mission. The agency seeks diverse representation geographically and across priority and underrepresented populations. NAC members meet three times a year. Applicants should submit a résumé and statement of willingness to serve before the June 20 deadline. Self-nominations are accepted. Access more information in the Federal Register Notice and forward questions to Jaime Zimmerman at NationalAdvisoryCouncil@ahrq.hhs.gov.

Register for May 8 Webinar on Feedback Methods To Complement Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Survey Data

Registration is open for a webcast on May 8 from 1 to 2 p.m. ET to highlight how patient experience professionals use multiple patient feedback methods to complement AHRQ’s Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) data. Speakers will discuss how they use feedback methods with CAHPS results to fully capture patient perspectives and use that information to improve care.

New Research and Evidence From AHRQ

• Rapid Evidence Product: Engaging Family Caregivers With Structured Communication for Safe Care Transitions
• Rapid Evidence Product: Patient Safety Practices Focused on Sepsis Prediction and Recognition
• Rapid Evidence Product: Prevention in Adults of Transmission of Infection With Multidrug-Resistant Organisms

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Effects of the valsartan recall on heart failure patients: a nationwide analysis. Devine JW, Tadrous M, Hernandez I, et al. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf. 2024 Apr;33(4):e5777. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Catholic hospital affiliation and postpartum contraceptive care and subsequent deliveries. Meille G, Monnet JN. JAMA Intern Med. 2024 Mar 4. [Epub ahead of print.] Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Assessing an innovative method to promote learning from patient narratives: findings from a field experiment in ambulatory care. Shaller D, Nembhard I, Matta S, et al. Health Serv Res. 2024 Apr;59(2):e14245. Epub 2023 Oct 16. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

The role of human-centered design in healthcare innovation: a digital health equity case study. Levander XA, VanDerSchaaf H, Barragán VG, et al. J Gen Intern Med. 2024 Mar;39(4):690-5. Epub 2023 Nov 16. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Estimating subgroup effects in generalizability and transportability analyses. Robertson SE, Steingrimsson JA, Joyce NR, et al. Am J Epidemiol. 2024 Jan 8;193(1):149-58. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Clinical prediction model: multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children versus Kawasaki disease. Starnes LS, Starnes JR, Stopczynski T, et al. J Hosp Med. 2024 Mar;19(3):175-84. Epub 2024 Jan 28. Access the abstract on PubMed®.                             

Impact of hospital affiliation with a flagship hospital system on surgical outcomes. Ramadan OI, Rosenbaum PR, Reiter JG, et al. Ann Surg. 2024 Apr;279(4):631-9. Epub 2023 Oct 17. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Tools for the diagnosis of ADHD in children and adolescents: a systematic review. Peterson BS, Trampush J, Brown M, et al. Pediatrics. 2024 Apr;153(4):e2024065854. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Contact Information
For comments or questions about AHRQ News Now, contact Bruce Seeman, (301) 427-1998 or Bruce.Seeman@ahrq.hhs.gov.