Year in Review
2005
2006 year in review.indd 1
4/6/06 4:57:19 PM
Year in Review 2005
President’s Message
T
his report highlights the robust mix of programs and activities that comprise AcademyHealth. In summary, 2005 was exceptionally strong year for AcademyHealth as demonstrated through increased participation in our programs and our strong financial position. Our Annual Research Meeting had record-setting participation, and our Interest Groups continue to grow in size and scope. The growth in our membership and
participation in our expanded program offerings are a testament to the strength and vitality of the health services
research and health policy fields. The contributions our members are making to improve health policy and practice
were epitomized by the new AcademyHealth HSR Impact Awards announced in December.
AcademyHealth continues to be recognized by national foundations as an excellent base for important research
and demonstration programs intended to advance improvements in health and health care. In addition to The
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation programs on Health Care Financing and Organization and State Coverage
Initiatives, The Commonwealth Fund selected AcademyHealth to be the home for their Commission on a High
Performance Health System and Future of Medicare program.
I want to salute the invaluable contributions being made by those who serve on the AcademyHealth and Coalition
boards and committees. We greatly appreciate their participation, insight and guidance. Letters from our Board
and Coalition Chairs, who guided our work in 2005, introduce this report and reflect upon the year’s achievements
and opportunities for the future.
Finally, the strength of AcademyHealth is also shown through the quality and commitment of its staff. This dedicated cadre is committed to advancing the health services research and health policy fields and to showcasing the
many excellent contributions our members are making to advance research, policy, and practice.
With the Board’s direction and support, we look forward to continuing AcademyHealth’s work to advance research,
policy, and practice in collaboration with our partners.
Sincerely,
W. David Helms, Ph.D.
President & CEO
2006 year in review.indd 2
4/6/06 4:57:19 PM
Year in Review 2005
Letter from the 2005
AcademyHealth Board Chair
I
t has been an honor and a pleasure to serve as
chair of the AcademyHealth Board of Directors
in 2005. My tenure coincided with the five-year
anniversary of AcademyHealth, which prompted us to
take stock of the progress we’ve made and the issues
that will arise as we move forward.
I have been especially pleased to have been able to lead
the board during the launch of a number of important
initiatives, which we believe will position AcademyHealth to meet the challenges facing the health services
research and policy communities.
On a national policy front, a major development is the
reauthorization of the Agency for Health Research and
Quality. The Board’s Committee on the Placement,
Coordination, and Funding of Health Services Research
within the Federal Government, established in 2003,
prepared a comprehensive analysis of options for the
organization, as well as placement of government-sponsored comparative effectiveness research activities. The
Board adopted this report, which was informed by interviews with nearly 40 leaders in health services research
and policy and which has now been widely disseminated to the Administration, Members of Congress,
congressional staff, and within the health services and
health policy communities. When fully implemented,
comparative effectiveness research will not only inform
health care, but also will create new demand for health
services research expertise. This new demand will, in
turn, bolster the case for improving the infrastructure
for the field, including greater support for graduate education, research methods, and data development.
bership, a review committee considered many notable
proposals and selected two research teams to receive
the first award at the 2006 National Health Policy Conference in February. A description of their research has
been published under the banner of AcademyHealth’s
HSR Impacts series. We believe that this award will help
encourage policy-relevant research and will help raise
awareness of the importance of health services research
to health policy and practice.
Working with federal agencies and national foundations
that fund health services research, AcademyHealth has
also begun to explore the value of convening this group
as a Council of Sponsors of Health Services Research
and to develop a strategic plan or blueprint for the field.
To advise this initiative, AcademyHealth staff is now
conducting a series of interviews to seek input on the
role of the Council and to identify infrastructure needs
for the field.
The Board believes that collectively, these initiatives will
help lay the foundation for stronger recognition of the
role of research in improving health and health care. In
his keynote speech at the 2005 Annual Research Meeting in Boston, Dr. Atul Gawande stressed the critical
role this field must play if we are to achieve the needed
improvements in both public health and the health care
system. He emphasized that “research on our health
care system can save more lives in the next decade
than bench science, research on the genome, stem cell
research, cancer vaccine research, and everything else
we hear about on the news.”
It has been a pleasure to serve as your chair.
A second initiative relates to the need to build a more
compelling case for the role that research can play in
informing health policy and practice. To underscore this
need, the Board created a new award to recognize seminal research that has had a significant impact on health
policy, management, or clinical practice. Following an
open call for nominations from AcademyHealth mem-
Sara Rosenbaum, J.D.
George Washington University
2006 year in review.indd 3
4/6/06 4:57:20 PM
Year in Review 2005
Letter from the 2005 Chair of the
Coalition for Health Services Research
W
ith your help and support, the Coalition for Health Services Research—the
advocacy arm of AcademyHealth—has
had an encouraging 2005. Most agencies that support health services research were funded at last
year’s level, but this happened in a year when many
programs that did not deal with the war or disaster
relief were cut or eliminated.
While the Agency for Healthcare Research and
Quality did not receive the budget increase we had
hoped for, the Senate Appropriations Committee did
include language in its funding bill recognizing the
importance of investigator-initiated research and
encouraging AHRQ to maximize its efforts to fund
more of this critical research.
Two major challenges remain for the 109th Congress.
The first is the reauthorization of AHRQ. AcademyHealth has approved five recommendations for
Congressional consideration regarding the placement,
funding, and coordination of health services research.
The Coalition is currently working hard to have these
recommendations enacted as policy. As part of these
efforts, we have had discussions with key congressional leaders, important Administration officials, and
representatives from key stakeholder organizations, including the 135 organizations who are members of the
Friends of AHRQ, and the 25 members of the Alliance
for Better Health Care, which lobbies for more funding
for comparative effectiveness research.
In addition to AHRQ reauthorization, your Coalition
leaders recognize the need to develop a new generation of champions for health services research. Many
of our champions have left or soon will leave the
Congress, including Senator Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), who
will be retiring from the Senate after next year. Other
supporters, such as Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Tom
Harkin (D-Iowa), will remain but not indefinitely. For
this reason, the Coalition leadership is working hard
to identify members of the Congress who might be
helpful as supporters of health services research
provided that we educate them about what we do
and help them to understand the importance of
investing in health services research.
Along with my colleagues on the Coalition Board,
and with considerable help from David Helms
and Jon Lawniczak, we will continue our efforts to
increase awareness and interest in health services
research and, hopefully, to enhance its funding. We
look forward to working with the membership of
AcademyHealth in support of that goal.
Sincerely,
David Abernethy
Chair, Coalition for Health Services Research
2006 year in review.indd 4
4/6/06 4:57:21 PM
Year in Review 2005
2005 Board of Directors
David Abernethy
(Coalition Chair)
Senior Vice President, Operations
HIP Health Plans
Harold S. Luft, Ph.D.
Caldwell B. Esselstyn Professor and Director
Institute for Health Policy Studies
University of California, San Francisco
Margarita Alegria, Ph.D.
Cambridge Health Alliance
Director
Nicole Lurie, M.D.
Senior Natural Scientist
RAND Corporation
Charlie Baker, Jr.
President & CEO
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
Jan Malcom
CEO
Courage Center
David Blumenthal, M.D.
Director
Institute for Health Policy
Massachusetts General Hospital/
Partners HealthCare System
David Mechanic, Ph.D.
Director
Institute for Health Care Policy
Rutgers University
Sheila P. Burke
Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer
Smithsonian Institution
Kathleen Buto
Vice President, Health Policy
Government Affairs
Johnson & Johnson
John Colmers
Program Officer
Milbank Memorial Fund
Arnold M. Epstein, M.D.
John H. Foster Professor & Chair
Department of Health Policy& Management
Harvard School of Public Health
Nelson M. Ford
Principle Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army
Financial Management, U.S. Army
Jeanne Lambrew, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
The George Washington University
Marsha Lillie-Blanton, Dr. P.H.
Vice President in Health Policy
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
Jonathan Lomas
Executive Director
Canadian Health Services Research Foundation
2006 year in review.indd 5
Neil R. Powe, M.D.
Professor and Director
Welch Center for Prevention,
Epidemiology & Clinical Research
The Johns Hopkins University
Robert D. Reischauer, Ph.D.
President
The Urban Institute
Thomas Rice, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Health Services
University of California, Los Angeles
Sara Rosenbaum, J.D.
Harold & Jane Hirsh Professor of Health Policy
Chair, Department of Health Policy
The George Washington University
Carol Weisman, Ph.D.
Professor
Pennsylvania State College of Medicine
Gail R. Wilensky, Ph.D.
Senior Fellow
Project HOPE
W. David Helms, Ph.D.
President & CEO
AcademyHealth
4/6/06 4:57:21 PM
Year in Review 2005
2005 Coalition for Health Services
Research Board of Directors
David Abernethy (Chair)
Senior Vice President, Operations
HIP Health Plans
Stuart Altman, Ph.D.
Sol C. Chaikin Professor of National Health
Brandeis University
Charlie Baker (Treasurer)
President & CEO
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
Michael Chernew, Ph.D.
Professor
Dept of Health Management and Policy
School of Public Health
University of Michigan
Charles N. Kahn, M.P.H. (Vice Chair)
President
Federation of American Hospitals
Jeanne Lambrew, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Health Policy
The George Washington University
Sara Rosenbaum, J.D.
Hirsch Professor and Chair
Department of Health Policy
The George Washington University
Donald M. Steinwachs, Ph.D.
Professor
Bloomberg School of Public Health
The Johns Hopkins University
Reed Tuckson, M.D.
Senior Vice President
Department of Consumer Health/Medical
UnitedHealth Group
Myrl Weinberg
President
National Health Council
Mary Woolley (Secretary)
President
Research!America
W. David Helms, Ph.D.
President & CEO
AcademyHealth
2006 year in review.indd 6
4/6/06 4:57:21 PM
Year in Review 2005
Coalition for Health Services Research 2004 Board of Directors
About AcademyHealth
A
cademyHealth is the professional home
for health services researchers, policy
analysts, and practitioners, and a leading, non-partisan resource for the best in health
research and policy. The organization promotes
interaction across the health research and policy
arenas by bringing together a broad spectrum of
players to share their perspectives, learn from each
other, and strengthen their working relationships.
2. Facilitate the use of the best available research
and information by:
uTranslating research findings and the lessons of
experience into useful information for clinical,
management, and policy decisions;
uEnhancing communication and interaction
between health service researchers and health
policymakers; and
uIdentifying areas in which additional research is
needed to better inform decisions.
Our Vision:
AcademyHealth seeks to improve health and
health care by generating new knowledge and moving knowledge into action.
As the preeminent professional society for health
services researchers and health policy analysts,
AcademyHealth collaborates with the health services
research community and other key stakeholders to:
1. Support the development of health services
research by:
u Expanding and improving the scientific basis
of the field;
uIncreasing the capabilities and skills of researchers; and
uPromoting the development of the necessary
data resources and financial and human infrastructure.
3. Assist health policy and practice leaders in addressing major health challenges by:
uTranslating research findings and the lessons of
experience into useful information for clinical,
management, and policy decisions;
uEnhancing communication and interaction
between health service researchers and health
policymakers; and
uIdentifying areas in which additional research is
needed to better inform decisions.
AcademyHealth works to achieve its mission
by offering conferences and seminars, research
support, professional development programs,
and knowledge transfer activities. With the active
support and participation of our organizational
affiliates and individual members, AcademyHealth
continues its efforts to advance research, policy,
and practice.
2006 year in review.indd 7
4/6/06 4:57:22 PM
Year in Review 2005
Membership
A
cademyHealth is a membership organization with approximately 3,800 individual members and 135 organizational
affiliates. Its individual members include health
services researchers, public policymakers, business decision makers, policy analysts, economists,
sociologists, political scientists, consultants, clinicians and students. Academic institutions, private
research organizations, health providers, health
plans, health systems, associations, foundations,
and government agencies comprise our organizational affiliates.
Membership Dues
Beginning in September of 2005 , we unbundled
dues and journal subscriptions, allowing members
to join or renew with zero, one, or two journal
subscriptions. This was in response to members’
requests for a no-journal membership rate since
some members have access to our official journals
through institutional subscriptions. This allowed
us to hold dues rates constant at $150 for regular
members and $25 for students. With this change,
we have seen a 25 percent increase in the number
of student memberships in 2005.
Journals
AcademyHealth also formalized three levels of relationships it will have with journal publishers. We
continue to offer “official” status to two journals:
Health Affairs and HSR. For these two journals we
facilitate subscription fulfillment and collaborate
on a number of projects. We also provide discounted subscriptions to members through our
“coupon” program. In 2005, 32 health journals
and newsletters participated in this program. New
this year is the addition of a mid-level “partner”
journal relationship. Partner journals include the
Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law and The
Milbank Quarterly. These journals will provide a
subscription discount to members through our
coupon program as well as working closely together to cross-promote special issues, programs,
and other activities.
Interest Groups
Now in their second full year of operation, AcademyHealth’s ten interest groups have continued to
be very popular with nearly 3,000 individuals registered and more than 60 percent of active members
joining at least one group. Each interest group
held a substantive meeting in conjunction with our
Annual Research Meeting, which in total attracted
nearly 700 participants to interest group activities.
In addition, the interest groups began to coordinate new activities such as web-based discussion
forums, mentoring programs, workforce surveys,
and workgroup projects.
2006 year in review.indd 8
4/6/06 4:57:22 PM
Year in Review 2005
AcademyHealth Programs
Through its national conferences, topical forums, skill-building workshops, and international initiatives,
AcademyHealth convenes stakeholders around critical health issues, and provides professional development opportunities for researchers and policy professionals.
2005 Annual Research Meeting
The AcademyHealth 2005 Annual Research
Meeting (ARM), hosted in Boston for the first
time, hit several all-time highs, including record
attendance. In its 22nd year, the ARM continued
to be the premier forum for health services
research, providing opportunities to present and
learn about cutting-edge research, debate health
policy issues, network with colleagues, and develop new methodological skills.
In addition to record attendance, there were a number
of “firsts” for the Annual Research Meeting in 2005:
uMore
than one-third of the attendees
(37 percent) were first-timers;
uNearly two-thirds of the 544 speakers
(63 percent) were first-time presenters;
uThere was a measurable increase in the number
of breakout sessions, call for papers sessions,
call for panels, poster presentations, and PowerPoint presentations over previous years;
uAbstract submissions soared to 1,510
(12 percent increase over 2004); and,
uMore than 50 adjunct meetings were held in
conjunction with the Annual Research Meeting,
including 10 AcademyHealth Interest Groups.
The 2006 Annual Research Meeting will be held in
Seattle on June 25-27.
Seminars in Health Services Research
Methods
AcademyHealth offers both 90-minute methods
workshops and full-day methods seminars at its
Annual Research Meeting. In 2005, the five full-day
methods seminars were:
uAdvances
in Methods for Monitoring
Health Outcomes, taught by John Ware, Jr.,
QualityMetric, Inc.
uIntroduction to Hierarchical Modeling for Health
Services Research, taught by Sharon-Lise Normand, Harvard School of Public Helath, and Alan
Zaslavsky, Harvard Medical School
2006 year in review.indd 9
uThe
Why & How of Risk Adjustment, taught by
Arlene Ash, Boston University School of Medicine, and Michael Shwartz, Boston University
School of Management
uEnhancing Your Methodological Toolbox: An
Introduction to Qualitative Research, taught by
Shoshanna Sofaer, Baruch College; Kelly Devers,
Virginia Commonwealth University; and Kristin
Carman, American Institutes for Research
uThe Healthcare Cost & Utilization Project (HCUP):
Data & Tools for Health Services Research & Policy
Analysis, taught by Claudia Steiner, Jenny Schnaier,
and Herbert Wong, all from AHRQ
A total of 200 students participated in the full-day
methods seminars.
2005 AcademyHealth Award Winners
Each year, AcademyHealth honors health services
research and health policy leaders with several
prestigious awards, which were presented during
the 2005 Annual Research Meeting in Boston.
Distinguished Investigator Award
Linda H. Aiken, Ph.D., is director of the Center for
Health Outcomes and Policy Research, The Claire M.
Fagin Leadership Professor of Nursing, professor of sociology, and senior fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute
of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania.
Alice S. Hersh New Investigator Award
Katrina Armstrong, M.D., M.S.C.E., is an assistant
professor of medicine and epidemiology, senior
fellow and director of research at the Leonard Davis
Institute of Health Economics, and senior scholar
in the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also
the program leader of the Cancer Control and Outcomes Program at the Abramson Cancer Center.
Article-of-the-Year Award
Anthony T. LoSasso, Ph.D., received this award
for his lead authorship on “The effect of the state
children’s health insurance program on health insurance coverage,” which appeared in the September 2004 issue of the Journal of Health Economics.
4/6/06 4:57:23 PM
Year in Review 2005
This article is co-authored by Thomas Buchmueller, Ph.D., University of California, Irvine.
Dissertation Award
Rachel M. Werner, M.D., Ph.D., is an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and a
staff physician at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center.
2005 National Health Policy Conference
The National Health Policy Conference (NHPC),
co-hosted by AcademyHealth and Health Affairs,
provides approximately 700 participants with a
health policy preview of the year ahead, as experts
from the administration, academia, and the health
industry share insights on critical health care issues.
The 2005 NHPC was held in Washington, DC, on
February 2-3, and marked the fifth anniversary of this
national event. The conference was held soon after
President Bush won the election for a second term and
was organized around the theme: “Post Election 2004:
What’s in Store for Health Policy.” Sessions focused
on consumer-driven health plans, Medicare coverage,
malpractice reform, prescription drug discount cards,
and the congressional health policy agenda.
Health Policy Tools & Techniques
For the second year, AcademyHealth offered two,
three-hour minicourses on Health Policy Tools &
Techniques in conjunction with the National Health
Policy Conference. The 2005 minicourses were
“Health Policy by Numbers: Understanding Federal
Cost Estimates,” taught by Kenneth E. Thorpe, Ph.d.
and “Risk Adjustment & Health Policy: Everything You
Ever Wanted to Know,” taught by David Knutson.
The purpose of the minicourses is to provide
professional development opportunities for health
policy professionals, just as AcademyHealth offers
a variety of Seminars in Health Services Research
Methods for its researcher members. The minicourses have been at capacity during each of the
two years they have been offered. Because of this
strong demand, two new courses will be offered in
conjunction with the 2006 NHPC.
www.academyhealth.org/nhpc/index.htm
Policymaking in Washington:
The 2005 Health Policy Orientation
a highly regarded program that provides a behind
the scenes look at policymaking in Washington.
With a one-to-one ratio of faculty to participants,
the orientation offers an in-depth understanding of
formal and informal policymaking processes and
the players who shape health policy.
In each of the past two years, the Orientation was
at capacity with 50 participants, including public
officials, federal or state government employees,
private sector health care employees, including
health policy fellows, consultants, and analysts.
www.academyhealth.org/orientation
The International Exchange for Health
Services Research and Policy
The exchange provides opportunities for U.S.
researchers and policymakers to learn from health
policy developments abroad. AcademyHealth works
with a broad range of partners on activities that
include: comparative health services research and
policy analysis, educational programs, and bilateral
and multilateral expert meetings and conferences.
This year, the Rockefeller Foundation and other
sponsors supported nine country case studies and
an expert meeting on nurse migration, which was
held in Bellagio, Italy in July. The fall issue of Health
Care Financing Review reported on our November
2004 German-US conference on care coordination.
Plans are under way for a March 2006 meeting
with Mexico on Type 2 Diabetes among indigenous
groups. The Mexico meeting will be sponsored by
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation and
supported through the AHRQ-KT contract.
www.academyhealth.org/international
Health in Foreign Policy Forum
As more health policy challenges extend across
borders, there is growing recognition that countries
can no longer ensure the health of their citizens
through national policies alone. The forum facilitates
inter-disciplinary dialogue between health and foreign
policy experts on issues that require an international
perspective. The inaugural Forum in 2005 focused
on the nexus between the health and foreign policy
fields; the 2006 Forum will focus on Migration and
the Global Shortage of Health Workers.
www.academyhealth.org/nhpc/foreignpolicy/
This three-and-a-half day program, which is hosted
by AcademyHealth with partial support from the
National Center for Health Statistics, has become
10
2006 year in review.indd 10
4/6/06 4:57:23 PM
Year in Review 2005
Sponsored Programs and Contracts
I
n addition to developing its own programs,
AcademyHealth serves as the home for
foundation programs and as a contractor to
the federal government for a number of important
initiatives. These programs sponsor research and
demonstration projects, provide technical assistance, and disseminate research to public and
private decision makers.
changes to help meet such targets. The Commission
meets three times per year, with a number of active
workgroups meeting intermittently, and supports annual Congressional and Congressional staff retreats,
as well as an annual set of policy issue briefs and
series of briefings on Capitol Hill.
Program on Medicare’s Future
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The Commonwealth Fund
This program aims to enhance Medicare’s capacity to be an innovative leader in coverage, quality
improvement, and value by evaluating policy options
and practices for achieving better access, improved
quality, and greater efficiency for Medicare beneficiaries—particularly the most vulnerable ones—and for
the health care system overall. During the past year,
the program has examined issues such as the implementation of the new prescription drug benefit and
its effect on the accessibility, quality, and cost of the
medication beneficiaries need, as well as the role of
private plans in Medicare. The program has also supported efforts to protect vulnerable beneficiaries and
to improve the quality, effectiveness, and coordination
of care provided to beneficiaries.
Commission on a High Performance
Health System
The Commonwealth Fund
The Commission, which was launched in June 2005,
aims to move the United States toward a highperforming health care system that achieves better
access, improved quality, and greater efficiency,
focusing on the most vulnerable populations. The 18
Commission members represent a full spectrum of
health system perspectives, as well as a commitment
to all elements of a high performing system. The
Commission is charged with identifying the characteristics of a high performance health system and public
and private policies and practices that would lead to
health system improvements; exploring mechanisms
for financing improved health insurance coverage as
well as investment in the nation’s capacity for quality
improvement; setting realistic targets for what the
U.S. could achieve and tracking change over time;
and identifying and analyzing policy and practice
2006 year in review.indd 11
Changes in Health Care Financing and
Organization Program (HCFO)
AcademyHealth is the national program office
for the HCFO program, an investigator-initiated
grants program that supports research and policy
analysis, evaluation, and demonstration projects
examining major changes in health care financing and their effects on cost, access, and quality.
HCFO brings together the policy and research
communities by convening meetings, translating
research, and disseminating findings.
As a multifaceted initiative working to provide timely
information to policy makers, HCFO periodically
issues special topic solicitations, which are designed
to elicit projects focused on a certain area of interest.
In 2005, HCFO fielded three special solicitations;
one, co-sponsored with the Commonwealth Fund,
called for proposals examining the administrative
complexities of today’s health insurance practices and
payment systems; a second called for proposals examining the use of consumer information in the new
consumer centric paradigm; and, the final solicitation sought proposals addressing the financing and
organization of the current public health system. The
solicitations drew a strong response from a wide variety of researchers representing multiple disciplines.
www.hcfo.net
State Coverage Initiatives Program (SCI)
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
AcademyHealth serves as the National Program
office for the SCI program, which provides technical
assistance to state policymakers’ efforts to maintain
and expand health insurance coverage. SCI convenes
national and regional workshops, publishes in-depth
analysis of state coverage strategies, and offers tools
and resources to state officials.
11
4/6/06 4:57:23 PM
Year in Review 2005
In 2005, SCI added new resources to its Web site,
www.statecoverage.net, to better help states navigate
options for expanding health insurance coverage. One
of the most significant improvements is the state coverage matrix, which provides at-a-glance comparisons
and in-depth descriptions of coverage strategies, such
as Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance
Program waivers, reinsurance, high-risk pools, limitedbenefit plans, and group purchasing arrangements.
Also included in the matrix are coverage profiles of
each state, as well descriptions of strategies that states
have implemented to expand or sustain coverage.
www.statecoverage.net
Knowledge Transfer Initiative
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Under contract with AHRQ, AcademyHealth
develops and implements long-range strategies to
assist health care purchasers, health systems leaders,
and state and local policymakers in applying researchbased evidence to policy and program development.
In 2005, AcademyHealth helped AHRQ launch two
national learning networks: The Medicaid Medical
Directors’ Learning Network is designed to assist
these clinical leaders in identifying and applying the
latest research findings and related information to
address high priority policy and program issues,
especially related to quality assurance, quality improvement, and coverage decisions. And, the Pilot
Learning Network on Quality-Based Purchasing
is intended to support a select group of employer
coalitions and State Medicaid agencies, that are
planning to implement a quality-based payment
scheme or public report card programs.
Through this contracting vehicle, AcademyHealth
has also developed projects with other AHRQ divisions and HHS agencies, including a project on
Economic Evaluation of Disease Management, an
Environmental Scan of State Quality Initiatives, an
Evidenced Based Disability and Disease Management Workshop and Toolkit for AoA and a Bilateral
U.S.-Mexico Meeting on Type 2 Diabetes Among
Indigenous Populations from ASPE.
State Planning Grant Program
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
AcademyHealth provides technical assistance
to HRSA State Planning Grantees that includes
on-site consultation with key grant staff and
stakeholders, as well as national forums for state
officials to share strategies for maintaining and
expanding coverage. In 2005, HRSA increased the
number of pilot states from nine to 18. However,
this is the last year of the program, and all the
grants awarded in 2005 will conclude by 2007.
www.statecoverage.net/hrsa.htm
Health Services Research Projects
in Progress (HSRProj)
National Library of Medicine
HSRProj is a unique database that provides information about health services research grants and
contracts that are still in progress. As the National
Library of Medicines (NLM) contractor, AcademyHealth and its subcontractor, the University of
North Carolina Chapel Hill, Cecil G. Sheps Center
for Health Services Research, have been successfully managing HSRProj since its inception in 1993.
In 2005, the project grew in a number of ways:
uExpanded
the HSRProj database and recruited
three new participating organizations;
uSubmitted a Research Report to NLM examining the influence of health technology on
prescribing and medication errors;
uAssisted NLM in identifying unmet information
needs among the health services research community through AcademyHealth’s network of
members, contacts, and technical advisors;
uSubmitted a solicitation plan to NLM targeting
new user audiences and venues to promote
HSRProj, developed promotional material and
conducted outreach in nine venues; and,
uReceived approval from NLM to develop and
disseminate two user prototypes highlighting
how HSRProj serves as a tool for researchers
and policymakers.
More information is available at www.academyhealth.org/hsrproj.
12
2006 year in review.indd 12
4/6/06 4:57:24 PM
Year in Review 2005
Advocacy through the Coalition for
Health Services Research
I
n 2005, the Coalition for Health Services Research – the advocacy arm of AcademyHealth
– focused on expanding our networks of supporters to advocate for increased funding for health
services research. Our advocacy efforts focused
on ensuring that Congress continues to value the
following agencies that support health services
research and data.
4) Establish Council of Sponsors to bring together
the public and private funders of health services
research to provide increased public-private coordination, undertake an overall assessment of the field,
and develop a plan to more effectively utilize the
resources provided to health services research; and
5) Increase overall funding of health services research
from $1.5 billion to $5 billion.
uAgency
Using the AcademyHealth report as its guide, the
Coalition developed and began implementing a
strategy to ensure that the needs of the field are
met when Congress reauthorizes the Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
Our advocacy is focused on insuring that mechanisms are adopted to provide insulation to the
agency conducing comparative effectiveness
research; increasing coordination throughout the
federal government and with the private sector; and
expanding the infrastructure that supports health
services research. To strengthen the infrastructure
for health services research, the Coalition is f0cusing
primarily on obtaining more funding for graduate
students and early career professionals, for investigator-initiated research and a broader range of
targeted solicitations, and for improving applied
research methods and health data sets. To achieve
our overall goals for the field, AcademyHealth has
established the long term goal of increasing funding
by the federal government
for health services research and health data from
$1.5 billion to $5 billion.
for Healthcare Research and Quality,
to focus on a broader range of research topics,
including comparative effectiveness research;
uCenters for Disease Control and Prevention,
in support of public health research;
uCenters for Medicare and Medicaid Services,
to have an independent research capacity;
uNational Centers for Health Statistics, to ensure
researchers have access to important data;
uNational Institutes of Health, to increase the
funding allocated to health services research; and
uVeterans Health Administration, to support the
critical role health services research plays at the
Veterans Administration.
This year, in addition to advocating for those agencies
that fund health services research, the Coalition’s efforts
included advocating in support of the AcademyHealth
report on the Placement, Coordination, and Funding of
Health Services Research within the Federal Government. (www.chsr.org/placementreport.pdf). This report
makes the following five recommendations:
1) AHRQ should remain the lead agency for health
services research;
2) Comparative effectiveness research should be
conducted within AHRQ and structured in such a
way as to provide greater insulation for the entity
that makes these findings;
3) Increase coordination of health services research
throughout the federal government;
The Coalition needs your help in all these advocacy
initiatives. Delegations of members and other advocates from states who have key legislators in the
appropriations process have been enormously influential, as have those who have been responsive to
our requests to contact their members of Congress.
For more information, go to www.chsr.org.
1 The AcademyHealth report also allows for comparative effectiveness research to be undertaken by either an entity separate from
AHRQ, or through the creation of a quasi-governmental entity. Determining that Congress was highly unlikely to provide a huge increase in expenditures for this function, the Coalition for Health Services Research decided to focus its advocacy efforts on improving
the comparative effectiveness structure within AHRQ.
13
2006 year in review.indd 13
4/6/06 4:57:24 PM
Year in Review 2005
2005 Funders and Supporters
Federal Government
Pharmaceutical Industry
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Center for Health Statistics
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Health Resources and Services Administration
Maternal and Child Health Bureau
National Institutes of Health
National Cancer Institute
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse
and Alcoholism
National Institute on Drug Abuse
National Institute of Mental Health
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning
and Evaluation
Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration
Department of Veterans Affairs
Health Services Research & Development Service
Eli Lily & Company
Johnson & Johnson
Merck and Company
National Pharmaceutical Council
Novartis
Pfizer
Foundations
American Legacy Foundation
California HealthCare Foundation
Canadian Health Services Research Foundation
The California Wellness Foundation
The Commonwealth Fund
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
Kansas Health Foundation
The Milbank Fund
Nemours
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation
UnitedHealth Foundation
Health Care Payers & Providers
Federation of American Hospitals
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
Kaiser Permanente
Mayo Clinic, Division of Health Care Policy & Research
Associations
AARP
American Medical Association
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
American Osteopathic Association
Association of American Medical Colleges
AUPHA
Biotechnology Industry Organization
National Association of Children’s Hospitals and
Related Institutions
National Health Council
Universities
University of California, Berkeley
Center for Health Research
University of California, San Francisco
Institute for Health Policy Studies, School of
Medicine
George Washington University
Department of Health Policy
School of Public Health and Health Services
John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,
Department of Health Policy and Management
Other
Abt and Associates, Inc.
Center for Studying Health System Change
Georgia Health Policy Center
International Development Research Centre
Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
The Lewin Group
Pan American Health Organization
Park Nicollet Institute
Polidais, LLC
Project Hope
RAND Health
14
2006 year in review.indd 14
4/6/06 4:57:24 PM