Vol XXVIII, Sep `06

AMDA Foundation: What is the funding mechanism at AHRQ?

Potter: We have two basic mechanisms-grants and contracts. Increasingly, we have general solicitations for grants that are very targeted. Then there are general National Institutes of Health proposals. Proposals are reviewed by select panels. AMDA is part of our action network and has the opportunity to do projects under contract that focus on interventions and tools. However, the most typical situation is a request for proposals, followed by submissions that are reviewed by our panel.

Foundation: How can our researchers find out about AHRQ research opportunities?

Potter: All AHRQ grants are listed on www.grants.gov. Also, our Web site talks about the organization's research priorities in general. So if people can check here to see if there is an interest in a topic that they would like to pursue.

Foundation: How do the review panels work?

Potter: In general, they provide recommendations and score the proposals. The final decisions are made by the agency's director. However, a grant proposal goes through a number of steps before being selected. Even a small grant that is reviewed internally by a committee is scored and goes through the same process.

Foundation: What are the some of the agency's activities that our readers may not know about?

Potter: Well, the agency offers conference grants. A group of your Research Network members could put in a proposal for a grant to support a conference-as long as it has a national scope. We also fund dissertations. And, of course, AHRQ supports a lot of clearinghouses-such as the National Quality Measures Clearinghouse and the Patient Safety Network. We have a whole page on our Web site linking clinicians to various evidence-based tools. Our Web site has a great deal of information and links to other sites for tools and other things that help physicians and others in their day-to-day practices.

Foundation: What advice do you have for novice researchers who are just getting started? How can AHRQ help/benefit them?

Spector: Periodically, we offer grant seminars to give people advice about how to put together a grant proposal. We don't have any scheduled currently, but we may have more later in the year. We also occasionally run workshops on using AHRQ data to help people interested in using this information. I would suggest that researchers ask themselves how an intervention is going to be implemented in study sites and how it will be developed into something that affects day-to-day practice.

Potter: Just generally, I would tell researchers that the types of studies that typically get funded have a good research base and good scientific methods. If they put together a couple of pages of an abstract, we will look at it and tell them if it likely would be appropriate for an AHRQ grant.

Foundation: On what long-term care/geriatrics topics is AHRQ most interested in receiving proposals? What do you see as being the 'hottest' topics for geriatrics research today and down the road?

Spector: Applicability to continuum of long term care is important. There also is a lot of interest around information technology issues. We're interested in this in terms of how it affects the management of care. Our group has focused on research questions that improve care, reduce costs, or increase access.

Our priorities are around quality issues, and we're particularly interested in quality around falls prevention, pressure ulcer prevention and treatment, and transitions between settings-which we know is a priority for AMDA researchers in general-and how to make the system work better. An early AMDA funded meeting convinced us that this is an area and one in which we are very interested.