Health IT Enables Quality Measurement, but Obstacles Remain

 

Health IT Enables Quality Measurement, but Obstacles Remain

AHRQ-funded research helped produce a range of improvements in how to measure quality using health information (IT) technologies, which are captured in a new report.   Based on the experiences of 17 researchers, the synthesis report, Findings and Lessons from the Enabling Quality Measurement Through Health IT Grant Initiative, incorporates results from AHRQ-funded grants that examined the development of electronic quality measures, methods of capturing and integrating quality data in electronic health records (EHRs), the accuracy of IT-enabled measurements, methods for providing meaningful feedback to clinicians, and ways that health IT could improve the efficiency of quality measurement.  In one example, Rainu Kaushal, M.D., of Weill Cornell Medical College led an initiative to generate and test the reliability of prioritized quality measures.  Fifteen of these measures were subsequently included in Stage 1 Meaningful Use requirements. Select to access Dr. Kaushal’s video.  A second example describes how data can be transformed into meaningful feedback that clinicians can use to improve practice.  Judith Logan, M.D., of Oregon Health Sciences University worked with clinicians to generate and report prioritized quality measures through interactive Web-based quality reports.  Select to access Dr. Logan’s video.  To learn more about these projects, select to read their success stories .  Select to the full synthesis report.