Business Meeting

Saturday, June 2, 2007 * 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin * Orlando * Oceanic 7

5:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Research Issues Related to Health Economics at AHRQ
Mike Hagan

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has commissioned an evaluation of AHRQ's activities concerning its Congressionally-authorized mission to support and disseminate research on "healthcare costs, productivity, organization, and market forces." AHRQ has awarded a contract to Mathematica Policy Research (MPR) to evaluate such activities, including strategies that AHRQ and its grant awardees have used to disseminate research findings successfully for use in both practice and policy settings. The evaluation is intended to provide an actionable assessment of grant supported research and its effectiveness in order to improve processes providing such support for research in the targeted areas. 

Primary evaluation questions are: 

• Since 1998 what research has AHRQ funded related to healthcare costs, productivity, and market forces?
• How and to whom have the AHRQ staff and grantees disseminated research findings to public and private decision makers and to what effect?
• What research niche has AHRQ served or filled, and to what effect compared to related NIH and privately funded research in these areas?
• What has been the nature and adequacy of AHRQ's project development, grant award and management processes?  

Staff from AHRQ and MPR  will briefly present and discuss the initiative's motivation, its conceptual framework and methodological approach, and present some preliminary findings from ongoing analysis and from some relevant auxiliary AHRQ program efforts -- including statistics about recent funding at AHRQ, the National Institutes of Health, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Changes in Healthcare Financing and Organization. 

At the close of the session there will be a discussion of opportunities and potential strategies for obtaining support for research on "costs, productivity, organization, and market forces" in a currently challenging funding environment.

5:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Interest Group Business: Leadership Transition & Elections
Tony Lo Sasso