- HHS to Identify Healthcare Infrastructure Critical in Emergencies
"This funding will help us understand, as rapidly as we can, the ways in which our health systems were successful or challenged during the response to the COVID-19 virus," HHS Secretary Alex Azar, said in the announcement.
"Learning from the COVID-19 pandemic as soon as we can is essential to maintaining an effective response and preventing future outbreaks. We are especially interested in understanding how our health systems met the needs of the most vulnerable individuals, how patient safety was protected and maintained, and how providers made use of President Trump's huge expansion of telehealth and other digital health tools."
There is a significant need for research in four major areas surrounding various efforts during and following the COVID-19 pandemic. These areas include:
- The effects on quality, safety, and value of the health system’s response to COVID-19
- The role of primary care practices and professionals during the pandemic
- How the response to COVID-19 affected socially vulnerable populations and people with multiple chronic conditions
- The integration of digital health in the response to COVID-19, including innovations and challenges encountered in the expansion of telehealth
"The healthcare system is under tremendous stress trying to respond rapidly to the pandemic and is innovating across many aspects of health care delivery," said Gopal Khanna, MBA, AHRQ Director.
"AHRQ's investment responds to the urgent need to understand what adjustments were and continue to be made by healthcare professionals and individual healthcare systems, and to evaluate the effectiveness of those adjustments, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic."
HHS stated that the funding opportunity applies to relevant research in all healthcare settings including hospitals, primary care and other ambulatory care settings, pre-hospital care, long-term and nursing home care, home health care, mental health and substance use care, pharmacy, and transitions of care between settings.
Applications for the new FOA can be submitted until June 15th. HHS urges anyone with questions regarding COVID-19 and its response to the pandemic to visit http://coronavirus.gov/ and AHRQ’s page, https://www.ahrq.gov/coronavirus/index.html.
HHS has been on the frontlines of COVID-19 since the beginning, forming connections with various healthcare organizations and awarding funds to different areas of the pandemic.
Last week, HHS offered $15 million in funding to nearly 160 healthcare providers across the country to expand telehealth services to meet demands caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
HHS noted that the money is being issued through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and will be used to train students, physicians, nurses, physician assistants, allied health and other high-demand professionals in telehealth.
The fund will also expand connected health platforms to replace or complement in-person care.
“Telehealth is a vital tool for our providers in delivering critical treatment to populations most seriously impacted by this pandemic,” Tom Engels, HRSA Administrator, said the announcement. “As we look to build and prepare the future workforce, telehealth has opened up new possibilities to educate and clinically train health providers to connect with patients, when and where they need services.”
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