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AMDA Foundation

Home arrow Programs arrow AMDA Foundation/Pfizer QI Awards arrow About the QI Awards
About the QI Awards PDF Print E-mail

ImageThe AMDA Foundation and Pfizer have partnered to sponsor the Quality Improvement Awards, a program designed to encourage the development of innovative projects that will help to make a distinct impact on the quality of long term care.

Types of Projects Supported

Proposals may be submitted for a general quality improvement project or in any one of the five areas of focus including: pain management, dementia, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, or urinary incontinence.

The Awards will support initiatives that focus on facility staff education, quality improvement programs, research on interventions and treatment, and health literacy to directly enhance the quality of care provided to patients in long term care settings.

  Education
 
 
  • Proposals in this category should focus on facility staff education and/or training programs
 
  Quality Improvement Programs  
 
  • Proposals should focus on training and mentoring facilities or organizations in continuous quality improvement (CQI) or specific QI projects covering areas of interest to the Foundation.
 
  Research Projects  
 
  • Research projects should be approximately one year in length and conducted in a single facility.
  • Results should be generalizable.
  • Examples could include an investigation into the characteristics of residents in the long term care setting whose weight loss is unavoidable, or a study looking at critical factors with hearing aid use.
 
  Health Literacy  
 
  • Health literacy projects should focus on ways to enhance improving healthcare communications between long term care patients and their family/caregivers/surrogates. Devising such systems are particularly important given the diminished literacy skills, cognitive capacity and communication skills of many long term care residents, especially those with dementia.
  • Examples could include projects that focus on the following: innovative ways to communicate given literacy and functional limitations (e.g., cognitive impairment, hearing or vision loss); different strategies for communicating given technological advances (e.g., e-mail, video-conferencing); and, methods of communicating with patients and families surrounding functional and disease-focused issues, taking into consideration diminished literacy skills and cultural differences.
 

Awards

Awards of $7,500 each will be made to three winners in this competition to support their projects. Two awards will support Quality Improvement projects focusing on one of the five areas of focus, and the third award will support a General Quality Improvement project. Awards are intended to cover salary support, consultant fees, materials, and travel to the AMDA annual symposium to present project results.

Eligibility

The program is open to all:

  • AMDA members (including associate members).* To join AMDA click here
  • Residents or fellows in an accredited training program
  • Mid-career and junior career faculty members of schools of medicine, osteopathy, nursing, or other health-related academic institutions

*Note: If the applicant is not an AMDA member the submission must be sponsored by an AMDA member. If you need help in locating an AMDA member, please contact us. Also, applicants who are not the medical director of the facility where the project will be conducted must have the consent of the facility medical director to implement the project.

Selection and Notification

Applications for the award will be reviewed by the AMDA Foundation's Quality Improvement Awards Selection Committee. The Committee will consider the following:

  • Scientific merit of the proposed project
  • The impact of the proposed project on improving quality in long term care
  • The generalizability of the project to other facilities and organizations
  • The feasibility of conducting the project within the required time frame

Application Procedure - The AMDA Foundation/Pfizer QI Application must be completed and submitted online through our online application process. Note that registration is required since this online application involves submitting and uploading documents in electronic form. Please see the My Area section for more information on registration if you are not currently registered. Therefore, if you're not currently logged in you must do so in order to gain access to the online application, which is located under the Programs > AMDA Foundation/Pfizer QI Awards > QI Awards Online Application menu above.  The application deadline is December 12, 2011.
 
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