“Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), announced a new funding opportunity announcement (FOA) that will award $5 million in fiscal year 2020 to support novel, high-impact studies that evaluate the responsiveness of health care delivery systems, health care professionals, and the overall U.S. health care system to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“AHRQ expects to invest the $5 million for new multi-method, rapid-cycle research with the ability to produce and disseminate initial observations within 6 months after award and then regularly throughout the remainder of the award period.”
“‘This funding will help us understand, as rapidly as we can, the ways in which our health systems were successful or challenged during the response to the COVID-19 virus,’ said HHS Secretary Alex Azar. ‘Learning from the COVID-19 pandemic as soon as we can is essential to maintaining an effective response and preventing future outbreaks. We are especially interested in understanding how our health systems met the needs of the most vulnerable individuals, how patient safety was protected and maintained, and how providers made use of President Trump’s huge expansion of telehealth and other digital health tools.’”
“AHRQ expects to fund critical research focused on topics such as the effects on quality, safety, and value of the health system response to COVID-19; the role of primary care practices and professionals during the COVID-19 epidemic; understanding how the response to COVID-19 affected socially vulnerable populations and people with multiple chronic conditions; and the integration of digital health in the response to COVID-19, including innovations and challenges encountered in the expansion of telehealth…” Read the full press release here.
Source: HHS To Award $5 Million for Health Services Research Related to COVID-19 – May 14, 2020. HHS.
