[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 8 (Thursday, January 12, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3796-3797]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-00548]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES


Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

    Request for Information--Learning Healthcare Systems
AGENCY: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), HHS.

ACTION: Request for Information.

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SUMMARY: The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is 
seeking information from healthcare delivery organizations about 
current challenges they are facing and solutions they are implementing 
as they seek to become learning healthcare systems. AHRQ is also 
seeking to identify opportunities such organizations see for the Agency 
to assist them in this work--for example by summarizing best practices, 
creating training materials, developing standardized metrics, and/or 
convening learning networks.

DATES: Submission deadline on or before February 28, 2017.

ADDRESSES:
    Email submissions: [email protected].
    Mailing Address: Learning Healthcare Systems, Office of the 
Director, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 5600 Fishers 
Lane, Rockville, MD 20857.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Brigid Russell, Office of the 
Director, [email protected], 301-427-1886.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The mission of the Agency for Healthcare 
Research and Quality (AHRQ) is to produce evidence to make health care 
safer, higher quality, more accessible, equitable, and affordable, and 
to work within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and 
with other public and private partners to make sure that the evidence 
is understood and used. The Agency strives to meet this mission by 
investing in research and generating needed evidence that supports 
disseminating tested practices, creating materials to teach and train 
health care systems and professionals to catalyze improvements in care, 
and developing measures and data used to track and improve performance. 
To learn more about the Agency, visit AHRQ.gov.
    The National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of 
Medicine or IOM) has described a learning healthcare system as an 
organization that ``is designed to generate and apply the best evidence 
for the collaborative healthcare choices of each patient and provider; 
to drive the process of discovery as a natural outgrowth of patient 
care; and to ensure innovation, quality, safety, and value in health 
care.'' \1\
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    \1\ Institute of Medicine/National Academy of Medicine. The 
Learning Healthcare System: Workshop Summary. Olsen L, Aisner D, 
McGinnis JM, eds. Washington, DC: National Academies Press; 2007.
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    Several trends within healthcare delivery are increasing the 
potential for the development of learning healthcare systems including 
the consolidation of ambulatory, in-patient, and post-acute care 
settings of care into integrated delivery systems, the evolution of 
health information systems, and increased attention to population 
health management. AHRQ is interested in understanding how healthcare 
professionals and organizations in the United States are currently 
working to become learning healthcare systems and in identifying high-
leverage opportunities for the Agency to support this transformation.
    Healthcare delivery organizations, both small and large, can 
function as learning healthcare systems, systematically gathering and 
creating evidence and applying the most promising evidence-based 
practices to improve their care delivery. AHRQ wants to better 
understand the process by which organizations and professionals select 
evidence to implement and the strategies used to move evidence into 
everyday practice. AHRQ is interested in hearing from the full range of 
healthcare delivery organizations including individual ambulatory 
practices, community health center networks, hospitals, individual 
components (such as departments) within larger organizations, networks 
of practices, accountable care organizations, and integrated delivery 
systems.
    Specific questions of interest to the Agency include, but are not 
limited to:
     How are learning healthcare systems utilizing their own 
data to inform clinical and organizational improvements in healthcare 
delivery, design, and efficiency?
     Are learning healthcare systems using their own data to 
inform strategies to address population health and healthcare 
disparities?
     What methodological and/or data quality issues have been 
encountered by the health care delivery organizations in generating 
evidence utilizing their own data?
     How do learning healthcare systems ensure that evidence 
either generated from their own data and/or adopted from external 
research is applied in a

[[Page 3797]]

consistent manner throughout the organization, including across 
different specialties, levels of care, and clinical sites?
     What metrics are learning healthcare systems utilizing to:
     Understand the degree to which they are functioning as a 
system?
     Monitor progress on their rate of moving clinical evidence 
into practice?
     Evaluate the consistency of application of evidence across 
the organization?
     How do these metrics relate to health care delivery 
organization goal setting, individual employee performance review and 
internal compensation linked to performance?
     How are learning healthcare systems involving patients and 
families in their efforts?
     What evidence, tools, training, methods, data, or measures 
could AHRQ develop or provide that would have a significant impact on 
the ability of health care delivery organizations to utilize their own 
data, use externally produced data and evidence, and meet their own 
quality and safety goals?
    AHRQ will use the information it receives to assist in developing 
future initiatives. These initiatives may include but are not limited 
to developing research grant opportunities to advance this field, 
investing in the creation of tools and training materials for health 
professionals and healthcare delivery organizations, the development of 
quality improvement measures, and/or convening learning collaboratives 
focused on accelerating the development of learning healthcare system 
capabilities within healthcare delivery organizations.
    Healthcare professionals and organizations are encouraged to 
respond to this RFI by submitting materials to the email address listed 
above by February 28, 2017. While AHRQ is interested in all of the 
specific questions listed above, respondents are welcome to include 
answers to as many or few as they choose as well as addressing 
additional areas of interest not listed. AHRQ encourages respondents to 
include a description of their healthcare delivery organization at the 
beginning of their response to provide context for the information they 
provide. Respondents are also encouraged to share supporting materials, 
such as charters for quality and safety improvement committees, data 
use agreements for learning collaboratives, population health metrics 
and reports, or guidelines for the use of evidence-based practices, 
that they believe will help the Agency better understand how they are 
working to become learning healthcare systems.
    This RFI is for planning purposes only and should not be construed 
as a policy, solicitation for applications, or as an obligation on the 
part of the Government to provide support for any ideas identified in 
response to it. AHRQ will use the information submitted in response to 
this RFI at its discretion and will not provide comments to any 
responder's submission. However, responses to the RFI may be reflected 
in future solicitation(s). The information provided will be analyzed 
and may appear in reports. Respondents will not be identified in any 
published reports. Respondents are advised that the Government is under 
no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or 
provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information 
submitted. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive 
information should be included in your response. The Government 
reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in 
any resultant solicitation(s).

Andrew B. Bindman,
Director.
[FR Doc. 2017-00548 Filed 1-11-17; 8:45 am]
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