Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 42 / Thursday, March 4, 2010 / Notices 9913 

applicable, the business or professional 

affiliation of the interested person. 

In the interest of security, NIH has 

instituted stringent procedures for entrance 

onto the NIH campus. All visitor vehicles, 

including taxicabs, hotel, and airport shuttles 

will be inspected before being allowed on 

campus. Visitors will be asked to show one 

form of identification (for example, a 

government-issued photo ID, driver’s license, 

or passport) and to state the purpose of their 

visit. 

Dated: February 25, 2010. 

Jennifer Spaeth, 

Director, Office of Federal Advisory 

Committee Policy. 

[FR Doc. 2010–4490 Filed 3–3–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4140–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Agency for Healthcare Research and 

Quality 

Request for Measures of Patient 

Experiences of Cancer Care 

AGENCY: Agency for Healthcare Research 

and Quality, HHS. 

ACTION: Notice of request. 

SUMMARY: The Agency for Healthcare 

Research and Quality (AHRQ), in 

collaboration with the National Cancer 

Institute (Nd), is soliciting voluntary 

submission of survey instruments and 

items, which ask adult survey 

respondents to assess the care delivered 

by cancer care providers. AHRQ is 

seeking these items and measures from 

researchers, survey firms, cancer care 

providers, patient advocacy groups, 

individual cancer patients, and other 

stakeholders who are interested in the 

development of survey measures of 

patient experiences of cancer care. To be 

as inclusive as possible, AHRQ is 

requesting such instruments and 

individual items, along with any 

available documentation of their 

validity and reliability and descriptions 

of survey methods for using them. 

Organizations can submit items for 

use in either or both of the two related 

initiatives to develop measures of the 

experience with cancer care. The first 

initiative will focus on identifying items 

and survey instruments that can be used 

by AHRQ as candidate items for a 

standardized instrument to measure 

patient assessment of cancer care. The 

ultimate goal of this process is to 

develop and test a survey that will be 

part of the CAHPS family of survey 

instruments. Submitters of items sent in 

response to this announcement and 

subsequently incorporated into the 

CAHPS® Survey for Cancer Care will be 

acknowledged in explanatory material 

accompanying the survey instrument 

and published on the CAHPS® Web site 

(https://www.cahps.AHRQ.gov). The 

instrument will be made available to the 

public under the CAHPS® trademark to 

encourage both widespread use and 

uniformity of criteria by which cancer 

care providers can be compared by 

consumers and others. Organizations 

that field CAHPS® Surveys with the 

trademarked CAHPS® name on them are 

required to follow all implementation 

and reporting instructions set out on the 

CAHPS® Web site. 

The second initiative will focus on 

the identification of items for use in a 

new tool being developed to measure 

Patient Centered Communication (PCC) 

in cancer care. While both initiatives are 

related to the patient care experience, 

the PCC instruments will focus 

primarily on elements of the 

communication between patients and 

clinicians throughout the spectrum of 

cancer care (i.e., exchanging 

information, fostering healing 

relationships, managing uncertainty, 

recognizing and responding to 

emotions, making decisions, and 

enabling self-management and patient 

navigation through the care continuum) 

as cited in Epstein & Street (Epstein RM, 

Street RL Jr. Patient Centered 

Communication in Cancer Care: 

Promoting Healing and Reducing 

Suffering. National Cancer Institute, 

NIH Publication No. 07–6225. Bethesda, 

MD, 2007). Submitters of items sent in 

response to this announcement and 

subsequently incorporated into the PCC 

instruments will be acknowledged in 

explanatory material accompanying the 

survey instruments and published on 

the NCI Web site (http:// 

outcomes.cancer.gov/areas/pcc/). 

In addition to the patient perspective 

on the care they receive, the PCC 

instruments will address 

communication from the perspective of 

the treating clinicians. 

AHRQ will consider all submitted 

instruments and items for inclusion in 

the final survey instruments under 

development. Submitters will not be 

identified with specific items in the 

final instrument, but will be included in 

a list of those who contributed 

candidate instruments and items if so 

desired. Please include a statement with 

your submission indicating whether or 

not you wish to be identified as a 

contributor. 

DATES: Please submit instruments and 

supporting information to Dr. William 

Lawrence (see address below) on or 

before April 2, 2010. 

ADDRESSES: Submissions should include 

a brief cover letter, a copy of the 

instrument or items for consideration 

and supporting information as specified 

under ‘‘Submission Criteria’’ below. 

Submissions may be in the form of a 

letter or e-mail, preferably with an 

electronic file in a standard word 

processing format on a CD or as an email attachment. Electronic submissions 

are encouraged. Please do not use 

acronyms unless clearly defined. 

Responses to this request should be 

submitted to: Dr. William Lawrence, 

Agency for Healthcare Research and 

Quality, 540 Gaither Road, Rockville, 

MD 20850, Phone: (301) 427–1517, Fax: 

(301) 427–1520, E-mail: 

william.lawrence@AHRQ.hhs.gov. To 

facilitate handling of submissions, 

please include full information about 

the instrument developer, any copyright 

holder and person to contact: (a) Name, 

(b) title, (c) organization, (d) mailing 

address, (e) telephone number, (f) fax 

number, and (g) e-mail address. A copy 

or citation of relevant peer-reviewed 

journal articles is also desirable, but not 

required. For citations, please include 

the title of the article, author(s), 

publication year, journal name, volume, 

issue, and page numbers where the 

article appears and/or other applicable 

evidence to support the value of the 

instrument or items for measuring 

patients’ experience (or the clinicians 

experience for the PCC initiative) of 

cancer care. 

All submissions must include a 

written statement granting AHRQ the 

right to use and authorize others to use 

the submitted instruments, items, and 

their documentation for the abovedescribed purposes. Thus, this 

statement must indicate whether you 

are interested in submitting the items or 

instruments for use in the first initiative 

(CAHPS® Survey for Cancer Care), the 

second initiative (PCC Surveys), or both. 

This statement must be signed by an 

individual authorized to act for any 

holder of copyright on each submitted 

measure or instrument. The authority of 

the signatory to provide such 

authorization should be described in the 

letter. Submitters’ willingness to grant 

to AHRQ the right to use and authorize 

others to use their instruments, items, 

and measures means that AHRQ will 

have a license to grant free access and 

rights to use all elements of the early 

and final versions of the CAHPS® and/ 

or PCC instruments, in accordance with 

the instruments’ supporting 

administration information and 

instructions. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

William Lawrence, MD, MS, from the 

mstockstill on DSKH9S0YB1PROD with NOTICES

9914 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 42 / Thursday, March 4, 2010 / Notices 

Center for Outcomes and Evidence, 

Agency for Healthcare Research and 

Quality, (please see contact information 

above). 

Submission Criteria 

The survey development teams are 

interested in instruments and items 

through which cancer patients can 

assess the care they receive from 

providers as well as the providers’ 

communication skill. They are also 

interested in instruments and items 

through which clinicians can assess 

delivered care or communication. In 

addition to survey items and 

instruments, the development teams are 

interested in observational measures 

and their associated scoring systems. 

AHRQ, in collaboration with 

experienced investigators, will evaluate 

all submitted instruments and items. 

Instruments and items may be adopted 

verbatim, in whole or in part, or may be 

modified. AHRQ will assume 

responsibility for the final measure sets 

as well as any future modifications to 

either survey. 

Each voluntary submission should 

include the following related 

descriptive information, to the extent 

that it is available: 

• The name of the instrument (or 

observational measure); 

• Domain(s) or key concepts covered 

in the survey; 

• Language(s) in which the 

instrument is available; 

• Evidence of cultural/cross group 

comparability; 

• Cognitive screening or assessments 

used and cognitive testing results; 

• Method of selection of respondent 

(i.e., patient) or patient representative or 

spokesperson (i.e., most appropriate 

family member/significant other, if more 

than one available); 

• Response rates; 

• Cost estimates for data collection; 

• Instrument reliability (internal 

consistency, test-retest, etc.); 

• Validity (content, construct, 

criterion-related); 

• Methods and results of field-testing; 

and, 

• Description of sampling strategies 

and data collection protocols, including 

such elements as mode of 

administration, informed consent 

materials, use of advance letters, timing 

and frequencies of contacts; 

• For the PCC initiative, indicate 

whether the instrument (or 

observational measure) is designed for 

use with patients or clinicians, as well 

as a statement indicating whether or not 

the submitter wishes to be 

acknowledged when the instrument is 

published on the NCI Web site. 

In addition, a description of how 

extensively the survey has been fielded 

should also be included in the 

submission materials. Measures that 

have been tested or implemented in just 

one or two research studies would have 

more limited value than those tested or 

implemented more widely, but 

measures will be considered on an 

individual basis when evaluating the 

measures needing further testing as a 

prerequisite to their inclusion in 

CAHPS® or PCC draft and final survey 

tools. 

Submission of copies of existing 

report formats developed to disclose 

findings to consumers and providers is 

desirable, but not required. 

Additionally, information about existing 

database(s) for the instrument(s) 

submitted is helpful, but not required 

for submission. Evidence of meeting the 

validity, reliability, and other criteria 

may be demonstrated through 

submission of peer-reviewed journal 

article(s) or through the best evidence 

available at the time of submission. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

AHRQ is a leader in developing and 

testing instruments for quantitative 

measurement of consumer experience 

within the healthcare system of the 

United States as evidenced by the 

development and widespread use of 

CAHPS® survey products. The 

Consumer Assessment of Healthcare 

Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) 

program is a public-private initiative to 

develop standardized surveys of patient 

experience of care received in 

ambulatory and facility settings. 

Standardization of measures is essential 

for meaningful comparison of 

performance across providers and 

settings. While CAHPS® instruments 

have been highly regarded within the 

industry and provide valuable 

information, until now, no CAHPS®

condition-specific surveys have been 

developed. Use of a standardized 

measurement instrument for cancer care 

will provide several benefits including: 

Comparable information across cancer 

care providers for the public about the 

quality of care; data-based 

recommendations for quality 

improvement efforts and a data base to 

stimulate further research in this area. 

AHRQ, through a collaborative process 

with NCI and other stakeholders, has 

initiated the process for this project. 

The steps to advance this initiative 

are described below: 

• Survey Development and Testing: 

The process by which measures will be 

defined and the most useful instruments 

or measures identified is as follows: 

Instruments submitted will be evaluated 

by the project team in consultation with 

AHRQ and NCI staff to determine if they 

meet high priority or common 

measurement needs and to identify 

whether additional measure 

development is required. Additional 

measure development will be done as 

needed. 

Until the trademarked versions or 

each instrument are available, access to 

and use of draft versions will require 

explicit written permission from AHRQ 

and sharing of testing results with the 

CAHPS® team. testing 

• Implementation Plan: The final 

tools and a description of the survey 

process as well as instructions for 

implementing of the final standardized 

CAHPS® and PCC cancer care 

instruments will be made available at no 

cost to the public on AHRQ and NCI 

Web sites and will include requirements 

and information related to their use in 

future data collections, analysis, and 

public reporting. 

Dated: February 16, 2010. 

Carolyn M. Clancy, 

Director, AHRQ. 

[FR Doc. 2010–4387 Filed 3–3–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4160–90–M 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention 

Statement of Organization, Functions, 

and Delegations of Authority 

Part C (Centers for Disease Control 

and Prevention) of the Statement of 

Organization, Functions, and 

Delegations of Authority of the 

Department of Health and Human 

Services (45 FR 67772–76, dated 

October 14, 1980, and corrected at 45 FR 

69296, October 20, 1980, as amended 

most recently at 75 FR 7489–7490, dated 

February 19, 2010) is amended to reflect 

the establishment of the Office of 

Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease 

Control and Prevention. 

Section C–B, Organization and 

Functions, is hereby amended as 

follows: After the mission statement for 

the Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention (C), insert the following: 

Office of Infectious Diseases (CV). The 

mission of the Office of Infectious 

Diseases (OID) is to lead, promote, and 

facilitate science, programs, and policies 

to reduce the burden of infectious 

diseases in the United States and 

globally. 

Office of the Director (CVA). (1) 

Serves as the principal advisor to the 

mstockstill on DSKH9S0YB1PROD with NOTICES