Funding Opportunity Number: PA-23-115
Deadlines: November 16, 2024, February 16, 2025, March 16, 2025
Description
This Small Research Grant (R03) NOFO will support discrete primary care-focused health services research projects designed to advance the science of primary care. The research strategy proposed by applicants must be related to the mission and research interests of AHRQ and its National Center for Excellence in Primary Care Research (NCEPCR), detailed below.
The AHRQ mission is to produce evidence to make health care safer, higher quality, more accessible, equitable and affordable, and to work with HHS and other partners to make sure that the evidence is understood and used. Revitalizing the Nation’s primary care system is critical to achieving AHRQ’s mission. AHRQ defines primary care as: “The provision of whole-person, integrated, accessible, and equitable health care by interprofessional teams who are accountable for addressing the majority of an individual’s health and wellness needs across settings and through sustained relationships with patients, families, and communities.” AHRQ’s statutory authorization provides that it shall serve as the principal source of funding for primary care practice research within HHS. 42 U.S.C. 299b-4(b)(1). AHRQ funds and disseminates research on primary care systems and innovations, including the nature of primary care as the usual source for addressing personal health care needs, the management of commonly occurring and undifferentiated clinical problems, and the continuity and coordination of health services
AHRQ has made significant investments in research to understand how to improve primary care-including investing in primary care training and practice-based research networks, integrating behavioral health and primary care, and evaluating the patient-centered medical home and the costs of primary care transformation. AHRQ’s continued dedication to advancing the field of primary care research includes the expansion of the capacity of the NCEPCR, the home for primary care research at AHRQ, to promote primary care research.
The overarching objective of this funding opportunity is to advance understanding of the role and capacity of primary care to increase the value and quality of care and improve patient outcomes and population health by delivering person-centered care. Within AHRQ’s mission, the primary care-specific priority areas of focus are:
1. Research to improve primary care, including regarding quality, access and affordability, the workforce, care delivery models, financing, digital healthcare, person-centeredness, and health equity.
2. Harnessing data and technology to conduct research on characteristics of primary care that may influence patient outcomes, such as whole person care, care coordination, continuity of care, and comprehensiveness of care.
3. Research on management of clinical areas unique to primary care, such as multiple chronic conditions, preventive care, undifferentiated syndromes, quality improvement, or behavioral and mental healthcare that is integrated within primary care.
Purpose:
AHRQ is interested in applications that will address salient questions related to primary care health services research. Robust primary care (including the elements of access, coordination, comprehensiveness, and continuity) is particularly important for patients with multiple chronic conditions (MCC), a burgeoning problem with an expanding older population, whose higher risks for severe disease compound the existing burdens of their underlying conditions. Similarly, access to high quality primary care for socially disadvantaged populations is critically important in advancing health equity. AHRQ is thus particularly interested applications that target the specific needs and challenges of disadvantaged populations and people living with MCC, and that improve their access, quality, and outcomes of care.
Specific Areas of Research Interest:
Sample primary care research domains relevant to this notice include, but are not limited to:
- Coordination of care across settings and providers, with attention to healthcare disparities and patients with multiple chronic conditions.
- Person-centered, whole person healthcare delivery that addresses social determinants of health.
- Primary care workforce issues, including approaches to support, develop, retain, and grow this workforce and further understanding and improvement of burnout, moral injury, and well-being.
- External supports, composition, and configurations of primary care teams and their effect on the effectiveness, efficiency and experience of care and health outcomes.
- The impact of financing models on the ability of primary care to deliver quality care.
- Community-based and public health partnerships.
- Organization of primary care within health care systems and public health, and its impact on performance.
- Behavioral health integration within primary care.
- The role of primary care in response to pandemics, natural and man-made disasters, climate change, other national health emergencies.
- Meaningful quality measures applicable to the primary care setting.
- Measurement of key aspects of primary care, such as “comprehensiveness” or “team performance”.
- The use of digital healthcare (including electronic health records, clinical decision support tools, telehealth, etc.) to improve the delivery of high-quality primary care.
- Any other significant issues or challenges primary care practices face and innovative solutions targeting them
For more information, please see the opportunity webpage.