72414 Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 226 / Wednesday, November 23, 2011 / Notices 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Agency for Healthcare Research and 

Quality 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities: Proposed Collection; 

Comment Request 

AGENCY: Agency for Healthcare Research 

and Quality, HHS. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: This notice announces the 

intention of the Agency for Healthcare 

Research and Quality (AHRQ) to request 

that the Office of Management and 

Budget (OMB) approve the proposed 

information collection project: 

‘‘Assessing the Feasibility of 

Disseminating EHC Products through 

Educational Activities.’’ In accordance 

with the Paperwork Reduction Act, 44 

U.S.C. 3501–3521, AHRQ invites the 

public to comment on this proposed 

information collection. 

DATES: Comments on this notice must be 

received by January 23, 2012. 

ADDRESSES: Written comments should 

be submitted to: Doris Lefkowitz, 

Reports Clearance Officer, AHRQ, by 

email at doris.lefkowitz@AHRQ.hhs.gov. 

Copies of the proposed collection plans, 

data collection instruments, and specific 

details on the estimated burden can be 

obtained from the AHRQ Reports 

Clearance Officer. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Doris Lefkowitz, AHRQ Reports 

Clearance Officer, (301) 427–1477, or by 

email at doris.lefkowitz@AHRQ.hhs.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Proposed Project 

Assessing the Feasibility of 

Disseminating EHC Products Through 

Educational Activities 

The Agency for Healthcare Research 

and Quality (AHRQ) requests that the 

Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB) approve under the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995 this collection of 

information from users of products 

provided by the John M. Eisenberg 

Clinical Decisions and Communications 

Science Center (Eisenberg Center). 

Information collected consists of 

feedback from managers, instructors, 

and learners about these health care 

guides and other products presented as 

part of Continuing Medical Education 

activities. 

AHRQ is the lead agency charged 

with supporting research designed to 

improve the quality of healthcare, 

reduce its cost, improve patient safety, 

decrease medical errors, and broaden 

access to essential services. AHRQ’s 

Eisenberg Center’s mission is improving 

communication of research findings to a 

variety of audiences (‘‘customers’’), 

including consumers, clinicians, and 

health care policy makers. The 

Eisenberg Center compiles research 

results into useful formats for customer 

stakeholders. The Eisenberg Center also 

conducts investigations into effective 

communication of research findings in 

order to improve the usability and rapid 

incorporation of findings into medical 

practice. The Eisenberg Center is one of 

three components of AHRQ’s Effective 

Health Care (EHC) Program. 

A primary goal of the Eisenberg 

Center is to translate results from 

systematic reviews of evidence 

comparing the effectiveness of two or 

more clinical care processes into 

information that can be used to support 

clinical decision-making. The major 

products of such efforts are brief guides 

designed for clinicians, patients, and 

policymakers that summarize the 

evidence concerning the effectiveness of 

various diagnostic and treatment 

processes. All of the guides and other 

products are designed to help decision 

makers, including clinicians and health 

care consumers, use research evidence 

to maximize the benefits of health care, 

minimize harm, and optimize the use of 

health care resources. 

The collections proposed under this 

project include activities to assess the 

feasibility of disseminating EHC 

products through Continuing Medical 

Education (CME) activities, specifically 

those planned and implemented by 

member organizations of the Society of 

Academic Continuing Medical 

Education (SACME). SACME is an 

organization with members in both the 

U.S. and Canada formed in 1976 to 

‘‘promote the research, scholarship, 

evaluation and development of CME 

and Continuing Professional 

Development (CPD) that helps to 

enhance the performance of physicians 

and other healthcare professionals 

practicing in the United States, Canada, 

and elsewhere for purposes of 

improving individual and population 

health.’’ 

For this project, the Eisenberg Center 

will work with six organizations 

selected from applications submitted by 

SACME members that had been invited 

to compete for funding. The Eisenberg 

Center selected sites based on the size 

of each organization’s CME audience, 

the project’s ability to inform the CME 

community, its degree of 

generalizability and replicability, and 

overall quality. Organizations selected 

for participation in the feasibility study 

have committed to specific activities 

designed to disseminate EHC Program 

summary guides to physicians, other 

clinicians, instructional faculty, and 

clinical researchers who participate in 

CME activities. Another partner in these 

efforts is the Association of American 

Medical Colleges (AAMC), which is 

assisting the project through access to 

MedEdPORTAL and CME4docs, two 

recently launched initiatives that are 

designed to encourage use of high 

quality CME resources by medical 

school faculty and others involved in 

development and delivery of CME. 

This research has the following goals: 

(1) Identify critical factors that 

enhance or impede integration of EHC 

products into CME activities; 

(2) Assess strategies to remove, 

overcome, or work around barriers to 

integration of EHC products into CME 

programming with selected audiences; 

(3) Confirm approaches that can be 

used in whole or in part to create and 

deliver effective CME instruction about 

EHC products (e.g., clinician guides, 

consumer guides, faculty slide sets); and 

(4) Review early educational program 

outcomes associated with integration of 

EHC products into CME activities. 

This study is being conducted by 

AHRQ through its contractor, the 

Eisenberg Center—Baylor College of 

Medicine (EC–BMC), pursuant to 

AHRQ’s statutory authority to conduct 

and support research, and disseminate 

information, on healthcare and on 

systems for the delivery of such care, 

including activities with respect to both 

the quality, effectiveness, efficiency, 

appropriateness and value of healthcare 

services and clinical practice. 42 U.S.C. 

299a(a)(1) and (4). 

Method of Collection 

To achieve the goals of this project the 

following activities and data collections 

will be implemented: 

(1) Interviews with CME Project 

Directors—Semi-structured interviews 

will be conducted with the 

representative of each participating 

CME institution leading the 

development and implementation of the 

educational activities associated with 

the study. The director is typically, but 

not always, an expert physician. The 

interviews will be designed to: (a) 

Assess perceived feasibility and obtain 

feedback on strategies used to integrate 

EHC products into their planned CME 

activities involving varied content, 

instructional methods, and delivery 

formats; and b) characterize barriers and 

facilitators to the integration of EHC 

products into specific CME activities. 

(2) Focus Group with CME Project 

Directors—A focus group will also be 

convened with the CME Project 


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Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 226 / Wednesday, November 23, 2011 / Notices 72415 

Directors described above near the 

midpoint of the project to: (a) Obtain 

feedback on the perceived usefulness, 

currency and quality of the EHC 

products; and (b) explore the overall 

implications concerning CME activities 

as an avenue for disseminating EHC 

products. 

(3) Interviews with Faculty Members— 

Semi-structured interviews will be 

conducted with clinicians who served 

as faculty in the CME activities 

associated with this study to: (a) Obtain 

perspectives on the quality, relevance, 

and utility of the resources that they 

accessed and integrated into their CME 

activities; (b) identify obstacles to the 

integration of EHC products into 

specific CME activities and contexts; 

and (c) identify additional tools or 

resources that could facilitate the 

integration of EHC content into CME 

activities. 

(4) Initial Survey Assessments of CME 

Participants—Learner questionnaires 

will be administered to each clinician 

participating in a CME activity to 

determine the degree to which the 

learning activities with integrated EHC 

products affected educational outcomes 

such as levels of knowledge about 

specific clinical treatment issues and 

incorporation of new knowledge into 

clinical practice. The initial 

questionnaire will be distributed by 

paper or electronically at the immediate 

conclusion of participation in the CME 

activity. 

(5) Follow-up Survey Assessments of 

CME Participants—A second 

questionnaire will be distributed 

electronically two months after each 

activity to each clinician learner and 

will be accessible through the Eisenberg 

Center Web site. An email message will 

be sent to invite participation and will 

include a link to the questionnaire. 

Gathering such data will provide a view 

of current awareness of EHC products 

and learners’ intentions to use the 

products in practice as well as 

perceptions of barriers to 

implementation. 

The collected data will be used to 

determine the feasibility of: (a) 

Including EHC products (i.e., clinician 

guides, consumer guides, faculty slide 

sets) in CME activities that employ 

varied delivery modalities; and b) 

initiating additional studies to identify 

factors that promote effective integration 

of evidence-based content into 

educational activities. The data gathered 

from physicians and other clinical 

professionals who are participating in 

CME activities will foster understanding 

of the current state of awareness of and 

willingness to learn about results from 

comparative effectiveness research 

studies. The planned assessment 

approaches will promote better 

understanding of strategies that are most 

appropriate for use in incorporating 

comparativeness effectiveness research 

findings into CME activities, as well as 

understanding which strategies produce 

desired educational outcomes and are 

most acceptable to targeted learners—in 

this case clinical professionals. The 

information generated will be used in 

designing learning programs for delivery 

through the Eisenberg Center for 

Clinical Decisions and Communications 

Science and will be shared with others 

in the CME community through journal 

articles, Web-based publications, and 

scientific presentations. 

Estimated Annual Respondent Burden 

Exhibit 1 shows the estimated 

annualized burden for the respondents’ 

time to participate in this research. 

Interviews will be conducted with each 

CME Project Director and will last about 

30 minutes, while the focus group will 

last about 90 minutes. A maximum of 30 

interviews will be conducted with CME 

faculty members. These are estimated to 

take 30 minutes to complete. The initial 

survey assessment of CME participant 

learners will take about 5 minutes to 

complete per questionnaire, as will the 

follow-up survey assessment. These 

questionnaires will be administered to 

the approximately 4,500 clinicians who 

will complete one of the study’s CME 

activities. Each learner will be asked to 

complete both the initial and follow-up 

surveys. 

EXHIBIT 1—ESTIMATED ANNUALIZED BURDEN HOURS

Type of data collection Number of 

respondents 

Number of 

responses per 

respondent 

Hours per 

response 

Total burden 

hours 

Interviews with CME Project Directors ............................................................ 10 1 30/60 5 

Focus Group with CME Project Directors ....................................................... 10 1 1.5 15 

Interviews with Faculty Members .................................................................... 30 1 30/60 15 

Initial Survey Assessment of CME Participants .............................................. 4,500 1 5/60 375 

Follow up Survey Assessment of CME Participants ....................................... 4,500 1 5/60 375 

Total .......................................................................................................... 9,050 na na 785 

Exhibit 2 shows the estimated 

annualized cost burden associated with 

the respondent’s time to participate in 

this research. The total annual cost 

burden is estimated to be $65,233. 

EXHIBIT 2—ESTIMATED ANNUALIZED COST BURDEN

Type of data collection Number of 

respondents 

Total burden 

hours 

Average 

hourly wage 

rate 

Total cost 

burden 

Interviews with CME Project Directors ............................................................ 10 5 * $64.31 $322 

Focus Group with CME Project Directors ....................................................... 10 15 * 64.31 965 

Interviews with Faculty Members .................................................................... 30 15 ** 83.59 1,254 

Initial Survey Assessment of CME Participants .............................................. 4,500 375 ** 83.59 31,346 

Follow up Survey Assessment of CME Participants ....................................... 4,500 375 ** 83.59 31,346 


sroberts on DSK5SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
72416 Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 226 / Wednesday, November 23, 2011 / Notices 

EXHIBIT 2—ESTIMATED ANNUALIZED COST BURDEN—Continued 

Type of data collection Number of 

respondents 

Total burden 

hours 

Average 

hourly wage 

rate 

Total cost 

burden 

Total .......................................................................................................... 9,050 785 na 65,233 

* Based upon the mean wages tor clinicians (29–1062 family and general practitioners health services managers (11–9111), National Compensation Survey: Occupational wages in the United States May 2010, U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. http://www.bls.gov/ 

oes/current/oes_nat.htm. 

** Based upon the mean wages for clinicians (29–1062 family and general practitioners), National Compensation Survey: Occupational wages 

in the United States May 2010, U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm. 

Estimated Annual Cost to the 

Government 

Exhibit 3 shows the total and 

annualized cost by the major cost 

components. The maximum cost to the 

Federal Government is estimated to be 

$166,417 annually. 

EXHIBIT 3—ESTIMATED TOTAL AND ANNUALIZED COST

Cost component Total cost Annualized cost 

Project Development ............................................................................................................................... $110,846 $55,423 

Data Collection Activities ......................................................................................................................... 47,563 23,781 

Data Processing and Analysis ................................................................................................................. 38,250 19,125 

Project Management ................................................................................................................................ 73,675 36,838 

Overhead ................................................................................................................................................. 62,500 31,250 

Total .................................................................................................................................................. 332,834 166,417 

Request for Comments 

In accordance with the Paperwork 

Reduction Act, comments on AHRQ’s 

information collection are requested 

with regard to any of the following: (a) 

Whether the proposed collection of 

information is necessary for the proper 

performance of AHRQ healthcare 

research and healthcare information 

dissemination functions, including 

whether the information will have 

practical utility; (b) the accuracy of 

AHRQ’s estimate of burden (including 

hours and costs) of the proposed 

collection(s) of information; (e) ways to 

enhance the quality, utility, and clarity 

of the information to be collected; and 

(d) ways to minimize the burden of the 

collection of information upon the 

respondents, including the use of 

automated collection techniques or 

other forms of information technology. 

Comments submitted in response to 

this notice will be summarized and 

included in the Agency’s subsequent 

request for OMB approval of the 

proposed information collection. All 

comments will become a matter of 

public record. 

Dated: November 10, 2011. 

Carolyn M. Clancy, 

Director. 

[FR Doc. 2011–30047 Filed 11–22–11; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4160–90–M 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention 

Board of Scientific Counselors, Office 

of Infectious Diseases: Notice of 

Charter Renewal 

This gives notice under the Federal 

Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92– 

463) of October 6, 1972, that the Board 

of Scientific Counselors, Office of 

Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease 

Control and Prevention (CDC), 

Department of Health and Human 

Services (HHS), has been renewed for a 

2-year period through October 31, 2013. 

For information, contact Robin 

Moseley, M.A.T., Designated Federal 

Officer, Board of Scientific Counselors, 

Office of Infectious Diseases, CDC, HHS, 

1600 Clifton Road, NE., Mailstop D10, 

Atlanta, Georgia 30333, telephone (404) 

639–4461 or fax (404) 235–3562. 

The Director, Management Analysis 

and Services Office, has been delegated 

the authority to sign Federal Register 

notices pertaining to announcements of 

meetings and other committee 

management activities, for both the 

Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention and the Agency for Toxic 

Substances and Disease Registry. 

Dated: November 15, 2011. 

Elaine L. Baker, 

Director, Management Analysis and Services 

Office, Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention. 

[FR Doc. 2011–30235 Filed 11–22–11; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4163–18–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention 

Subcommittee for Dose 

Reconstruction Reviews (SDRR), 

Advisory Board on Radiation and 

Worker Health (ABRWH or the 

Advisory Board), National Institute for 

Occupational Safety and Health 

(NIOSH) 

In accordance with section 10(a)(2) of 

the Federal Advisory Committee Act 

(Pub. L. 92–463), the Centers for Disease 

Control and Prevention (CDC), 

announces the following meeting for the 

aforementioned subcommittee: 

Time and Date: 9 a.m.–5 p.m., Eastern 

Time, December 19, 2011. 

Place: Cincinnati Airport Marriott, 2395 

Progress Drive, Hebron, Kentucky 41018, 

Telephone: (859) 334–4611, Fax: (859) 334– 

4619. 

Status: Open to the public, but without an 

oral public comment period. Written 

comments may be submitted. To access by 

conference call dial the following 


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