Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 210 / Thursday, October 30, 2014 / Notices 64597 

Dated: October 27, 2014. 

Edward Loeb, 

Acting Director, Federal Acquisition Policy 

Division, Office of Government-wide 

Acquisition Policy, Office of Acquisition 

Policy, Office of Government-wide Policy. 

[FR Doc. 2014–25808 Filed 10–29–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6820–EP–P 

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE 

GENERAL SERVICES 

ADMINISTRATION 

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND 

SPACE ADMINISTRATION 

[OMB Control No. 9000–0064; Docket 2014– 

0055; Sequence 30] 

Information Collection; Federal 

Acquisition Regulation; Organization 

and Direction of Work 

AGENCY: Department of Defense (DOD), 

General Services Administration (GSA), 

and National Aeronautics and Space 

Administration (NASA). 

ACTION: Notice of request for public 

comments regarding an extension to an 

existing OMB clearance. 

SUMMARY: Under the provisions of the 

Paperwork Reduction Act, the 

Regulatory Secretariat Division will be 

submitting to the Office of Management 

and Budget (OMB) a request to review 

and approve an extension of a 

previously approved information 

collection requirement concerning 

organization and direction of work. 

DATES: Submit comments on or before 

December 29, 2014. 

ADDRESSES: Submit comments 

identified by Information Collection 

9000–0064, Organization and Direction 

of Work, by any of the following 

methods: 

• Regulations.gov: http:// 

www.regulations.gov. Submit comments 

via the Federal eRulemaking portal by 

searching the OMB Control number 

9000–0064. Select the link ‘‘Comment 

Now’’ that corresponds with 

‘‘Information Collection 9000–0064, 

Organization and Direction of Work’’. 

Follow the instructions provided on the 

screen. Please include your name, 

company name (if any), and 

‘‘Information Collection 9000–0064, 

Organization and Direction of Work’’, 

on your attached document. 

• Fax: 202–501–4067. 

• Mail: General Services 

Administration, Regulatory Secretariat 

Division (MVCB), 1800 F Street NW., 

Washington, DC 20405–0001. ATTN: 

Ms. Flowers/IC 9000–0064, 

Organization and Direction of Work. 

Instructions: Please submit comments 

only and cite Information Collection 

9000–0064, Organization and Direction 

of Work, in all correspondence related 

to this collection. All comments 

received will be posted without change 

to http://www.regulations.gov, including 

any personal and/or business 

confidential information provided. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. 

Curtis Glover, Procurement Analyst, 

Federal Acquisition Policy Division, 

GSA, telephone (202) 501–1448, or via 

email at Curtis.Glover@gsa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

A. Purpose 

When the Government awards a costreimbursement construction contract, 

the contractor must submit to the 

contracting officer and keep current a 

chart showing the general executive and 

administrative organization, the 

personnel to be employed in connection 

with the work under the contract, and 

their respective duties. The chart is used 

in the administration of the contract and 

as an aid in determining cost. The chart 

is used by contract administration 

personnel to assure the work is being 

properly accomplished at reasonable 

prices. 

B. Annual Reporting Burden 

Respondents: 50. 

Responses per Respondent: 1. 

Annual Responses: 50. 

Hours per Response: .75. 

Total Burden Hours: 38. 

C. Public Comments 

Public comments are particularly 

invited on: Whether this collection of 

information is necessary for the proper 

performance of functions of the FAR, 

and whether it will have practical 

utility; whether our estimate of the 

public burden of this collection of 

information is accurate, and based on 

valid assumptions and methodology; 

ways to enhance the quality, utility, and 

clarity of the information to be 

collected; and ways in which we can 

minimize the burden of the collection of 

information on those who are to 

respond, through the use of appropriate 

technological collection techniques or 

other forms of information technology. 

Obtaining Copies of Proposals: 

Requesters may obtain a copy of the 

information collection documents from 

the General Services Administration, 

Regulatory Secretariat (MVCB), 1800 F 

Street NW., Washington, DC, 20405– 

0001 telephone 202–501–4755. Please 

cite OMB Control No. 9000–0064, 

Organization and Direction of Work, in 

all correspondence. 

Dated: October 27, 2014. 

Edward Loeb, 

Acting Director, Federal Acquisition Policy 

Division, Office of Government-wide 

Acquisition Policy, Office of Acquisition 

Policy, Office of Government-wide Policy. 

[FR Doc. 2014–25812 Filed 10–29–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6820–EP–P 

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: 

‘‘Evaluation of the AHRQ Healthcare 

Horizon Scanning System.’’ In 

accordance with the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104– 

13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)), AHRQ 

invites the public to comment on this 

proposed information collection. 

This proposed information collection 

was previously published in the Federal 

Register on August 12th, 2014 and 

allowed 60 days for public comment. 

AHRQ received no substantive 

comments. The purpose of this notice is 

to allow an additional 30 days for public 

comment. 

DATES: Comments on this notice must be 

received by December 1, 2014. 

ADDRESSES: Written comments should 

be submitted to: AHRQ’s OMB Desk 

Officer by fax at (202) 395–6974 

(attention: AHRQ’s desk officer) or by 

email at OIRA_submission@

omb.eop.gov (attention: AHRQ’s desk 

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 

‘‘Evaluation of the AHRQ Healthcare 

Horizon Scanning System’’ 

The American Recovery and 

Reinvestment Act (ARRA) appropriated 

$1.1 billion for comparative 

effectiveness research (CER), of which 

$300 million was made available to the 


tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
64598 Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 210 / Thursday, October 30, 2014 / Notices 

Agency for Healthcare Research and 

Quality (AHRQ). The goal of CER is to 

improve patient outcomes by providing 

clinicians and patients the information 

they need to choose between preventive 

and diagnostic treatments, and other 

health care options to identify the 

options that best fit an individual 

patient’s needs and preferences. The 

EHC Program was created in response to 

Section 1013 of the Medicare 

Prescription Drug, Improvement, and 

Modernization Act (MMA) of 2003. 

To better inform comparative 

effectiveness research investments at the 

EHC Program, AHRQ used some of the 

ARRA funds to develop a horizon 

scanning system to identify and monitor 

emerging health care technologies and 

innovations. While horizon scanning 

systems exist in other countries, these 

systems do not take into account the 

unique political, regulatory, cultural, 

and economic context of the U.S. health 

care system. To meet this need, the 

AHRQ Healthcare Horizon Scanning 

System was implemented in November 

2010. The AHRQ Healthcare Horizon 

Scanning System provides a systematic 

process to identify and monitor target 

technologies and innovations in health 

care and to create an inventory of target 

technologies that have the highest 

potential for impact on clinical care, the 

health care system, patient outcomes, 

and costs. It is also a tool for the public 

to identify and find information on new 

health care technologies and 

interventions. 

Additionally, the AHRQ Healthcare 

Horizon Scanning System serves as a 

resource for those involved in decision 

making about adoption, 

implementation, and coverage of new 

health care interventions. 

To fulfill its purpose, the AHRQ 

Healthcare Horizon Scanning System 

performs three functions: (1) 

Identification and prioritization of 

interventions in late phase development 

for tracking and monitoring; (2) 

monitoring of target interventions 

through the development of detailed 

information on interventions in late 

phase development; and (3) assessment 

of potential impact of target 

interventions through the gathering and 

synthesizing the perspectives of experts 

from various areas of the health care 

community about the potential impact 

those target interventions may have on 

the health care system, clinical care, 

patient outcomes, and health care costs. 

As the first and only U.S. horizon 

scanning system, it is important to 

understand whether the AHRQ 

Healthcare Horizon Scanning System is 

implementing its functions effectively. 

This evaluation is also essential to 

determining whether the AHRQ 

Healthcare Horizon Scanning System is 

meeting the needs of patients, 

clinicians, private industry, and 

policymakers and how it can be 

improved to better meet those needs. 

The evaluation will address the 

following research questions: 

1. How successfully did the AHRQ 

Healthcare Horizon Scanning System 

identify and prioritize interventions for 

monitoring? 

2. How successfully did the AHRQ 

Healthcare Horizon Scanning System 

monitor the selected target 

interventions? 

3. How accurately did the AHRQ 

Healthcare Horizon Scanning System 

assess the potential impact of the 

interventions? 

4. How can the processes for 

identification, prioritization, 

monitoring, and assessment of potential 

impact of the interventions be 

improved? 

This research has the following goals: 

1. To assess the performance of the 

AHRQ Healthcare Horizon Scanning 

System in the identification and 

prioritization of interventions which are 

important topics for further assessment. 

2. To assess the performance of the 

AHRQ Healthcare Horizon Scanning 

System in terms of the quality of 

information provided on the topics 

selected, and the accuracy of the 

assessment of potential impact. 

3. To identify which, if any, of these 

areas of performance may require 

improvement so as to strengthen the 

effectiveness of the AHRQ Healthcare 

Horizon Scanning System. 

This evaluation is being conducted by 

AHRQ through its contractor, ECRI 

Institute, and ECRI’s subcontractor, 

Mathematica Policy Research, pursuant 

to AHRQ’s statutory authority to 

conduct and support research on health 

care and on systems for the delivery of 

such care, including activities with 

respect to the quality, effectiveness, 

efficiency, appropriateness and value of 

health care services and with respect to 

quality measurement and improvement. 

42 U.S.C. 299a(a)(1) and (2) 

Method of Collection 

To achieve the goals of this project the 

following data collections will be 

implemented: 

1. Expert Survey—The purpose of this 

survey, completed by domain experts, is 

to measure the accuracy and 

completeness of the AHRQ Healthcare 

Horizon Scanning System Potential 

High Impact reports and to collect their 

assessment of the potential for high 

impact for the included Potential High 

Impact interventions. 

2. Expert Consultation—The purpose 

of this consultation with experts is to 

confirm the cases of inaccurate or 

missing information identified by a sole 

expert in the Expert Survey. 

3. Stakeholder Survey—The purpose 

of this survey, completed by 

stakeholders and likely users of the 

reports issued by the AHRQ Healthcare 

Horizon Scanning System, is to rate the 

relevance, clarity, and usefulness of the 

Potential High Impact reports. 

4. Key Informant Interview—The 

purpose of these interviews of the 

AHRQ Healthcare Horizon Scanning 

System staff is to learn about areas and 

suggestions for improvement in the 

identification, monitoring, and impact 

assessment processes. 

The data collected by the Expert 

Survey will be used to measure the 

accuracy and completeness of the 

Potential High Impact reports and the 

accuracy of the potential for high impact 

assessments. If the expert survey 

identifies cases of inaccurate or missing 

information that are not reported by 

multiple experts, we will conduct an 

Expert Consultation with another expert 

to confirm these cases. Accuracy of the 

potential for high impact assessments 

will be measured by the level of 

sensitivity (if experts agree that the 

Potential High Impact interventions 

identified by the AHRQ Healthcare 

Horizon Scanning System are high 

impact interventions) and specificity (if 

experts agree that the No Potential High 

Impact interventions identified by the 

AHRQ Healthcare Horizon Scanning 

System should be excluded from the 

group of Potential High Impact 

interventions). 

The Stakeholder Survey will collect 

data to measure the usability of the 

Potential High Impact reports and the 

specific report sections that include the 

potential high impact assessment, 

summary, and synthesis of expert 

comments. These data will be used to 

inform the improvement of the format 

and content of the report. The survey 

will also collect information on the 

sources and media these stakeholders 

use to find CER information to help 

AHRQ better target distribution of these 

reports to stakeholders. 

A series of semi-structured Key 

Informant Interviews will be conducted 

with staff and domain experts at ECRI 

Institute and other organizations that 

participate in the AHRQ Healthcare 

Horizon Scanning System in order to 

identify opportunities for improvements 

to the AHRQ Healthcare Horizon 

Scanning System process. Qualitative 

interviews are the main vehicle for 

gathering data to (1) learn which 

elements of the AHRQ Healthcare 


tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 210 / Thursday, October 30, 2014 / Notices 64599 

Horizon Scanning System Protocol are 

working well and the reasons why they 

are working well; and (2) understand 

which elements of the AHRQ Healthcare 

Horizon Scanning System Protocol can 

be improved, how they might be 

improved, and the relative importance 

of suggested improvements. 

All of these information collection 

activities will allow for an evaluation of 

the AHRQ Healthcare Horizon Scanning 

System, thereby creating the 

opportunity to both maintain and 

improve this important national 

resource. The findings will be presented 

in a report to ECRI Institute and AHRQ. 

Estimated Annual Respondent Burden 

Mathematica expects a response rate 

of 80 percent from the sample of 67 

experts for the Expert Survey—54 

completed surveys. The Expert Survey 

is expected to require about 20 minutes, 

on average, to complete. Mathematica 

expects that Expert Consultation with 

15 experts will be needed to confirm 

cases of inaccurate or missing 

information identified in the Expert 

Survey. The follow-ups should be about 

10 minutes. 

For the Stakeholder Survey, 

Mathematica expects that 30 percent of 

the sample of 700 stakeholders will be 

ineligible (i.e. will not find any of the 

presented reports relevant and therefore 

unable to rate a report) and that 65 

percent of the eligible sample will 

complete, resulting in 319 completes. It 

should take about 30 minutes to 

complete the Stakeholder Survey. 

Mathematica will conduct semistructured Key Informant Interviews, on 

average lasting 50 minutes, with 23 

respondents. 

EXHIBIT 1—ESTIMATED ANNUALIZED BURDEN HOURS

Form name Number of 

respondents 

Number of 

responses per 

respondent 

Hours per 

response 

Total burden 

hours 

Expert Survey .................................................................................................. 54 1 .33 18 

Expert Consultation ......................................................................................... 15 1 .17 3 

Stakeholder Survey ......................................................................................... 319 1 .50 160 

Key Informant Interviews ................................................................................. 23 1 .83 19 

Total .......................................................................................................... 411 ........................ ........................ 200 

EXHIBIT 2—ESTIMATED ANNUALIZED COST BURDEN

Form name Number of 

respondents 

Total burden 

hours 

Average 

hourly wage 

rate * 

Total cost 

burden 

Expert Survey .................................................................................................. 54 17.8 ** $92.25 $1,642 

Expert Consultation ......................................................................................... 15 2.5 ** $92.25 231

Stakeholder Survey ......................................................................................... 319 159.5 *** $48.72 7,771 

Key Informant Interviews ................................................................................. 23 19.1 **** $38.68 739

Total .......................................................................................................... 411 ........................ ........................ $10,383 

* May 2013 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

** Based on average wage for physicians and surgeons. 

*** Based on average wage for medical and health services managers. 

**** Based on average wage for social scientists and related workers. 

Request for Comments 

In accordance with the above-cited 

Paperwork Reduction Act legislation, 

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 health care research and health 

care 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; (c) 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: October 22, 2014. 

Richard Kronick, 

AHRQ Director. 

[FR Doc. 2014–25790 Filed 10–29–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4160–90–M 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Agency for Healthcare Research and 

Quality 

Meeting of the National Advisory 

Council for Healthcare Research and 

Quality 

AGENCY: Agency for Healthcare Research 

and Quality (AHRQ), HHS. 

ACTION: Notice of public meeting. 

SUMMARY: In accordance with section 

10(a) of the Federal Advisory Committee 

Act, 5 U.S.C. App. 2, this notice 

announces a meeting of the National 

Advisory Council for Healthcare 

Research and Quality. 

DATES: The meeting will be held on 

Friday, November 7, 2014, from 8:30 

a.m. to 3:00 p.m. 


tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES