[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 159 (Wednesday, August 19, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 41913-41914]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-19758]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
AHRQ Intent To Publish Grant and Contract Solicitations for
Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) Projects With Funds From the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)
AGENCY: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), HHS.
ACTION: Notice of Intent.
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SUMMARY: AHRQ is announcing the Agency's intention to support new CER
projects, with funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
(ARRA). The ARRA appropriated $300 million to AHRQ for support of CER.
ARRA funding will focus, initially, on 14 priority conditions
established by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human
Services under Section 1013 of the Medicare Prescription Drug,
Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003. These priority conditions
were identified through a process involving discussion with, and
extensive input from, the public as well as Federal agencies. The list
of priority conditions is relevant to the Medicare, Medicaid, and State
Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) programs, and can be found
at: http://effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/aboutUs.cfm?abouttype=program#Conditions.
DATES: AHRQ anticipates grant and contract solicitations to be
published
[[Page 41914]]
beginning in the fall, 2009, with funding to commence in spring, 2010.
Interested parties may sign up to receive updates about AHRQ's
Effective Health Care Program at http://effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/.
ADDRESSES: The future CER solicitations will be published in the NIH
Guide: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/index.html.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Until the solicitations are published,
AHRQ cannot provide information on their contents.
Direct any general comments regarding the Effective Health Care
program to: Lia Hotchkiss, MPH, PMP, Center for Outcomes and Evidence,
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 540 Gaither Road,
Rockville, MD 20850, Telephone: 301-427-1502, E-mail address:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has been
supporting comparative effectiveness research for many years and since
2005 through AHRQ's Effective Health Care Program, which was authorized
under Section 1013 of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and
Modernization Act of 2003. The Effective Health Care program provides
systematic reviews and develops other translational information and
tools designed to inform health care decision making. The Effective
Health Care Program advances the methodology of comparative
effectiveness research (CER) and provides training grants to enhance
the pool of researchers who can perform CER.
Comparative Effectiveness Research Initiative Description
Funding Opportunity Announcements soliciting research grant
applications for CER will provide $148 million for evidence generation.
This includes $100 million for the Clinical and Health Outcomes
Initiative in Comparative Effectiveness (CHOICE), a new, coordinated,
national effort to establish a series of prospective pragmatic clinical
comparative effectiveness studies that measure the benefits treatments
produce in routine clinical practice and will include novel study
designs focusing on real-world and under-represented populations
(children, elderly, racial and ethnic minorities, and other
understudied populations), and $48 million for the establishment or
enhancement of national patient registries that can be used for
researching the longitudinal effects of different interventions and
collecting data on under-represented populations. Additional grant
funding is expected to include $29.5 million to support innovative
translation and dissemination grants related to CER, as well as $20
million to support training and career development in CER.
Requests for Contracts for CER will provide $9.5 million to
establish an infrastructure to identify new and/or emerging issues for
comparative effectiveness review investments. Also, $10 million will
establish a Citizen's Forum to formally engage all stakeholders, and to
expand and standardize public involvement in the entire Effective
Health Care enterprise.
Additionally, AHRQ anticipates supporting other grants ($1 million)
and enhancing existing contracts for evidence synthesis ($50 million),
evidence generation ($24 million), translation and dissemination ($5
million), and salary and benefits for ARRA-related full-time equivalent
positions ($3 million).
Dated: August 11, 2009.
Carolyn M. Clancy,
AHRQ, Director.
[FR Doc. E9-19758 Filed 8-18-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4160-90-M