[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 10 (Tuesday, January 16, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 2611-2612]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-00617]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality


Supplemental Evidence and Data Request on Updating the 
Measurement Criteria for AHRQ's National Healthcare Quality and 
Disparities Report (NHQDR)

AGENCY: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), HHS. ACTION: 
Request for Supplemental Evidence and Data Submission.
SUMMARY: The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is 
seeking scientific information submissions from the public. Scientific 
information is being solicited to inform our review on Updating the 
Measurement Criteria for AHRQ's National Healthcare Quality and 
Disparities Report (NHQDR), which is currently being conducted by the 
AHRQ's Evidence-based Practice Centers (EPC) Program. Access to 
published and unpublished pertinent scientific information will improve 
the quality of this review.

DATES: Submission Deadline on or before February 15, 2024.

ADDRESSES: 
    Email submissions: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#e88d988ba889809a99c680809bc68f879e"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="1174617251707963603f7979623f767e67">[email protected]</span></a>.
    Print submissions:
    Mailing Address: Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement, 
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, ATTN: EPC SEADs 
Coordinator, 5600 Fishers Lane, Mail Stop 06E53A, Rockville, MD 20857.
    Shipping Address (FedEx, UPS, etc.): Center for Evidence and 
Practice Improvement, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, ATTN: 
EPC SEADs Coordinator, 5600 Fishers Lane, Mail Stop 06E77D, Rockville, 
MD 20857.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kelly Carper, Telephone: 301-427-1656 
or Email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#badfcad9fadbd2c8cb94d2d2c994ddd5cc"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="5a3f2a391a3b32282b74323229743d352c">[email protected]</span></a>.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Agency for Healthcare Research and 
Quality has commissioned the Evidence-based Practice Centers (EPC) 
Program to complete a review of the evidence for Updating the 
Measurement Criteria for AHRQ's National Healthcare Quality and 
Disparities Report (NHQDR). AHRQ is conducting this review pursuant to 
Section 902 of the Public Health Service Act, 42 U.S.C. 299a.
    The EPC Program is dedicated to identifying as many studies as 
possible that are relevant to the questions for each of its reviews. In 
order to do so, we are supplementing the usual manual and electronic 
database searches of the literature by requesting information from the 
public (e.g., details of studies conducted). We are looking for studies 
that report on Updating the Measurement Criteria for AHRQ's National 
Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report (NHQDR). The entire research 
protocol is available online at: https://effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/products/measurement-criteria-qdr/protocol.
    This is to notify the public that the EPC Program would find the 
following information on Updating the Measurement Criteria for AHRQ's 
National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report (NHQDR) helpful:
    [ssquf] A list of completed studies that your organization has 
sponsored for this topic. In the list, please indicate whether results 
are available on ClinicalTrials.gov along with the ClinicalTrials.gov 
trial number.
    [ssquf] For completed studies that do not have results on 
ClinicalTrials.gov, a summary, including the following elements, if 
relevant: study number, study period, design, methodology, indication 
and diagnosis, proper use instructions, inclusion and exclusion 
criteria, primary and secondary outcomes, baseline characteristics, 
number of patients screened/eligible/enrolled/lost to follow-up/
withdrawn/analyzed, effectiveness/efficacy, and safety results.
    [ssquf] A list of ongoing studies that your organization has 
sponsored for this topic. In the list, please provide the 
ClinicalTrials.gov trial number or, if the trial is not registered, the 
protocol for the study including, if relevant, a study number, the 
study period, design, methodology, indication and diagnosis, proper use 
instructions, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and primary and 
secondary outcomes.
    [ssquf] Description of whether the above studies constitute ALL 
Phase II and above clinical trials sponsored by your organization for 
this topic and an index outlining the relevant information in each 
submitted file.
    Your contribution is very beneficial to the Program. Materials 
submitted must

[[Page 2612]]

be publicly available or able to be made public. Materials that are 
considered confidential; marketing materials; study types not included 
in the review; or information on topics not included in the review 
cannot be used by the EPC Program. This is a voluntary request for 
information, and all costs for complying with this request must be 
borne by the submitter.
    The draft of this review will be posted on AHRQ's EPC Program 
website and available for public comment for a period of 4 weeks. If 
you would like to be notified when the draft is posted, please sign up 
for the email list at: https://www.effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/email-updates.
    The review will answer the following questions. This information is 
provided as background. AHRQ is not requesting that the public provide 
answers to these questions.

Guiding Questions

    The brief will be facilitated by guiding questions (GQs), 
documenting research and key informant input:
    GQ1. Which prioritization criteria for health care quality measures 
have been proposed?
    <bullet> What settings and intended use were the criteria developed 
for?
    <bullet> How are the criteria defined and operationalized?
    <bullet> In what context have these criteria been used?
    <bullet> How are the criteria similar or different from the current 
NHQDR criteria?
    GQ2. How should the current NHQDR measure selection prioritization 
criteria be updated?
    <bullet> What is the operationalized definition of each updated 
prioritization criteria?
    <bullet> What type of health care quality measures would help the 
NHQDR's primary audience monitor the effectiveness of health policy 
levers?
    GQ3. How should the new NHDQR measure selection prioritization 
criteria be applied?
    PICOTS (Populations, Interventions, Comparators, Outcomes, Timing, 
and Setting)

        Criteria for Inclusion/Exclusion of Studies in the Review
------------------------------------------------------------------------
         Domain                  Inclusion               Exclusion
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Population..............  <bullet> Publications   <bullet> Publications
                           that address quality    not addressing
                           of care indicators,     quality of care,
                           criteria, or            disparities, or
                           benchmarks. We will     social determinants
                           accept the authors'     of health.
                           definition of quality
                           of care. Quality
                           indicators may
                           include care
                           processes-related
                           measures (e.g.,
                           follow-up post
                           discharge, continuity
                           of care, medication
                           errors), heath
                           services utilization
                           measures (e.g.,
                           hospital readmission,
                           emergency department
                           visit), care
                           satisfaction (e.g.,
                           patient satisfaction,
                           care needs met, trust
                           in care provider), or
                           health outcomes
                           (e.g., mortality,
                           physical functional
                           status, mental
                           functioning, quality
                           of life) used as
                           quality indicators;
                           care disparities may
                           either address
                           differences in
                           provided health
                           services, focus on
                           care services or
                           health outcomes of
                           priority populations.
Concept.................  <bullet> Publications   <bullet> Publications
                           that describe a         describing only the
                           process of              need for quality of
                           developing,             care measures, only
                           selecting, applying,    quality of care
                           comparing,              measures without
                           evaluating, or          describing the
                           prioritizing            process of how to
                           measures, i.e.,         select measures, only
                           procedures, guiding     discussing the
                           principles, suggested   importance of
                           selection criteria,     selecting measures,
                           proposed decision       suggesting measures
                           rules, or consensus     only for individual
                           finding methods;        clinical areas or
                           publications must       patient populations,
                           describe an empirical   or only describing
                           ongoing or completed    hypothetical steps to
                           process to select       select measures.
                           measures used to
                           assess care quality
                           of a healthcare
                           delivery organization
                           or healthcare system.
Context.................  <bullet> Healthcare,    <bullet> Studies in
                           specifically            contexts outside of
                           healthcare delivery     healthcare, not
                           organizations.          specific to
                                                   healthcare, or not
                                                   applicable to the
                                                   U.S. health care
                                                   system.
Other limiters..........  <bullet> Reports        <bullet> Data reported
                           published in English-   in abbreviated format
                           language journal        (e.g., conference
                           manuscripts, trial      abstracts) will be
                           records, and gray       excluded; studies not
                           literature in the       published in English.
                           public domain from     <bullet> Systematic
                           the outlined sources.   reviews will be
                                                   retained for
                                                   reference mining.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Searches will be conducted without date restriction.

    Dated: January 8, 2024.
Marquita Cullom,
Associate Director.
[FR Doc. 2024-00617 Filed 1-12-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4160-90-P


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