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The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ; pronounced "ark" by initiates and often "A-H-R-Q" by the public) is one of twelve agencies within the
United States Department of Health and Human Services The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government created to protect the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is ...
(HHS). The agency is headquartered in
North Bethesda North Bethesda is an unincorporated, census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, located just north-west of the U.S. capital of Washington, D.C. It had a population of 50,094 as of the 2020 census. Among its neighbor ...
,
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
, a suburb of
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
(with a Rockville mailing address). It was established as the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) in 1989 as a constituent unit of the
Public Health Service In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Ă–ffentlichkei ...
(PHS) to enhance the quality, appropriateness, and effectiveness of health care services and access to care by conducting and supporting research, demonstration projects, and evaluations; developing guidelines; and disseminating information on health care services and delivery systems.


History

AHRQ's earliest predecessor was the National Center for Health Services Research and Development, established in 1968 within the PHS
Health Services and Mental Health Administration Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...
. When that administration was split up in 1973, it became the Bureau of Health Services Research within the PHS Health Resources Administration, It was renamed the National Center for Health Services Research in 1975. In 1978 it was transferred to the
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH) is an operating agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and the managing personnel body for the United States Public Health Service. The office is under the directi ...
. In 1985 it was renamed the National Center for Health Services Research and Health Care Technology Assessment. In 1989, the agency became its own operating agency within PHS, and was renamed Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) under the
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989 Omnibus may refer to: Film and television * ''Omnibus'' (film) * Omnibus (broadcast), a compilation of Radio or TV episodes * ''Omnibus'' (UK TV series), an arts-based documentary programme * ''Omnibus'' (U.S. TV series), an educational prog ...
(). During its early years, the Agency for Healthcare Policy and Research implemented large multidisciplinary, multi-institutional projects that focused on patient results in certain medical conditions in an effort to improve clinical practice. This has included basic health IT research, patient safety research on wrong site surgery, medical teamwork, and hospital acquired conditions such as
MRSA Methicillin-resistant ''Staphylococcus aureus'' (MRSA) is a group of Gram-positive bacteria that are genetically distinct from other strains of ''Staphylococcus aureus''. MRSA is responsible for several difficult-to-treat infections in humans. ...
and VRE. However, AHCPR became controversial when it produced several guidelines that some thought would reduce medical drugs and procedures. This included concern from
ophthalmologists Ophthalmology ( ) is a surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of eye disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a medic ...
on a cataract guideline and concern by the pharmaceutical industry over a reduction in the use of new drugs. When the agency produced a guideline that concluded that back pain surgery was unnecessary and potentially harmful, a lobbying campaign aided by Congressmen whose backs had been operated on changed the name of the agency and scaled back the guidelines program, which existed as the
National Guideline Clearinghouse National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC) is a database of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines and related documents. As of July 2, 2018, it will no longer be updated with new content, and it will no longer be available online as of July 18 ...
. until it was defunded in 2018. AHCPR was reauthorized December 6, 1999, as the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) under the
Healthcare Research and Quality Act of 1999 Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wiktionary:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physical and menta ...
, which amended Title IX of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 299 et seq).


Funding

The Trump administration proposed to merge the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality with the National Institutes of Health. The President's FY 2018 Request to Congress for the Agency was for $378.5 million. The 2015 budget for AHRQ is US$440 million, $24 million less than FY 2014. Within this total, the budget includes $334 million in Public Health Service (PHS) Evaluation Funds, a decrease of $30 million from FY 2014, and $106 million from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund, an increase of $13 million above FY 2014. The FY 2015 budget is intended to ensure the Agency continues its progress on health services research to improve outcomes, affordability, and quality. The budget also supports the collection of information on health care spending and use through th
Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project
(HCUP) an
Medical Expenditure Panel Survey
(MEPS). The FY 2015 budget provides $73 million, an increase of $1 million from FY 2014, for AHRQ's patient safety research and dissemination projects that prevent, mitigate, and decrease the number of medical errors, patient safety risks and hazards, and quality gaps. The budget includes $23 million, a $6 million decrease from FY 2014, for health information technology (health IT) research, and the development and dissemination of evidence and evidence-based tools to inform policy and practice on how health IT can improve the quality of American health care. In FY 2015, AHRQ will provide $20 million to support 40 grants for foundational health IT research to inform and support the meaningful use of health IT. In July 2018, the
National Guideline Clearinghouse National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC) is a database of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines and related documents. As of July 2, 2018, it will no longer be updated with new content, and it will no longer be available online as of July 18 ...
(NGC) and the National Quality Measures Clearinghouse (NQMC), two longtime online resources from the AHRQ, were shut down because federal funding ceased to be available to them. Other stakeholders were exploring options for hosting the NGC ]; should that happen, it will return to the web.


Leadership

Carolyn Clancy Carolyn is a female given name, a variant of Caroline. Other spellings include Karolyn, Carolyne, Carolynn or Carolynne. Caroline itself is one of the feminine forms of Charles. List of Notable People *Carolyn Bennett (born 1950), Canadian poli ...
M.D. was the director from 2002-2014.
Richard Kronick Richard Gray Kronick is an American health policy researcher and professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), where he is also an adjunct professor of political science. Biography Kronick received h ...
, Ph.D. was director from 2013 to March 2016. Sharon Arnold Ph.D. was acting director from February - April 2016, replacing Richard Kronick in February 2016. Dr. Andrew Bindman was the director of AHRQ from April 2016 until January 2017. Prior to joining AHRQ, Dr. Bindman served as faculty of UCSF School of Medicine.
Gopal Khanna Gopal Khanna was sworn in as the 5th director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality on May 9, 2017. He resigned on January 11, 2021. Previously, he was appointed Minnesota's first Chief Information Officer (CIO) by Governor Tim Paw ...
, MBA was appointed as Agency director on May 9, 2017, and resigned on January 11, 2021 in response to the January 6 Capitol riot. Following Khanna's resignation, deputy director Dr. David Meyers, M.D. served as acting director from 2021 to 2022.
Robert Otto Valdez Robert Otto Burciaga Valdez is an American academic and public health official who serves as the director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Education Valdez earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and Master of Arts in history and bio ...
was appointed director on February 27, 2022.


Divisions

The Agency has multiple offices and centers including the Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement (CEPI), the Center for Financing, Access and Trends, the Center for Delivery, Organization and Markets, the Center for Quality and Patient Safety, the Office of Management Services, the Office of Extramural Research and Priority Populations, and the Office of Communications. The Office of Communications was previously known as the Office of Communications and Knowledge Transfer. Within CEPI, the Evidence-Based Practice Centers (EPCs) develop evidence reports and technology assessments on topics relevant to clinical and other health care organization and delivery issues—specifically those that are common, expensive, and/or significant for the Medicare and Medicaid populations. With this program, AHRQ serves as a "science partner" with private and public organizations in their efforts to improve the quality, effectiveness, and appropriateness of health care by synthesizing the evidence and facilitating the translation of evidence-based research findings. Topics are nominated by Federal and non-Federal partners such as professional societies, health plans, insurers, employers, and patient groups.


See also

*
Medix UK Limited MedixGlobal is a UK-based market research consultancy providing online research in healthcare. Up until 2007, MedixGlobal produced not-for-profit studies and publications concerning issues such as euthanasia and patient confidentiality A patie ...
, UK-based market research consultancy providing online research in healthcare


References


External links


Official site

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
in the
Federal Register The ''Federal Register'' (FR or sometimes Fed. Reg.) is the official journal of the federal government of the United States that contains government agency rules, proposed rules, and public notices. It is published every weekday, except on feder ...
{{Authority control Health care quality Agencies of the United States Public Health Service Medical and health organizations based in Maryland