Technical Brief Now Available

Strategies for Patient, Family, and Caregiver Engagement
(Technical Brief, released on August 26, 2020)

The widely applied Chronic Care Model emphasizes the need for an "informed activated patient" and a "prepared and proactive team" to improve patient outcomes. This Technical Brief applies a framework to create a map of the currently available evidence on patient and family engagement strategies that have been used to help people manage chronic conditions.

Opportunity to Comment on Draft Key Questions

We encourage the public to participate in the development of our research projects. Comments can be submitted for:

Transitions of Care from Pediatric to Adult Services for Children with Special Healthcare Needs
(Available for comment until September 16, 2020)

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) requested this review as part of a series of projects for The Childhood Cancer Survivorship, Treatment, Access, and Research (STAR) Act to better understand the state of science and ultimately improve the care and quality of life for children and adolescent cancer survivors. The review will focus more broadly on children with special health care needs transitioning to adult care. The key decisional dilemmas to be addressed by the review include the effectiveness and harms of (1) care interventions targeted toward children with special healthcare needs and their families/caregivers (2) provider-focused training and implementation strategies and (3) tools to facilitate communication between pediatric and adult providers.

Opportunity to Submit Scientific Information

The Effective Health Care (EHC) Program is interested in receiving supplemental evidence and data (SEADs) for systematic reviews that are relevant to the questions in our evidence reports. To ensure that it has full access to relevant research, whether or not it is published, the EHC Program is interested in receiving SEADs containing detailed study-specific information. Opportunities to submit scientific information are available for:

Interventions To Decrease Hospital Length of Stay
(Available for submission until September 21, 2020)

The goals of this Technical Brief are to: (1) categorize and evaluate current knowledge regarding the multitude of strategies to reduce LOS; (2) examine contextual factors (e.g., resources, costs, staffing, and technology) that affect implementation of interventions; (3) identify emerging concepts or initiatives that may merit future research; and (4) develop a series of evidence maps to inform health systems’ strategic efforts.