Exploratory and Developmental Grant to Improve Health Care Quality through Health Information Technology (IT) (R21)

Additional Information:
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-14-001.html

Description:

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to fund exploratory and developmental research grants that will contribute to the evidence base of how health IT improves health care quality.  This FOA supports the use of a wide variety of research designs in order to generate information regarding the design and development, implementation, use, or impact of health IT on quality.  Depending on the research design and intent of the project, applicants may receive support for: (1) pilot and feasibility or self-contained health IT research projects; (2) secondary data analysis of health IT research; or (3) economic (prospective or retrospective) analyses of a health IT project.  Each grant application must clearly state which type of the three types of studies is being proposed. 

This FOA is focused on five research areas of interest that are needed to support health care quality and are considered part of a continuous quality improvement process.  The five research areas of interest for this FOA are:

1.  Design

2.  Implementation

3.  Use

4.  Impact on outcomes

5.  Measurement

Each application must clearly state at least one primary research area to be addressed.  These five research areas are more fully discussed in Section I below.