The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has awarded 19 exploratory grants to support 1-year planning efforts by primary care practice-based research networks (PBRNs). Together, these PBRNs will be able to engage in research with over 5,000 primary care providers and nearly 7 million patients in a variety of primary care practice settings across the United States.
AHRQ will provide over $2 million this year to support PBRN planning activities. Each grant will support the development of a PBRN plan to enhance the network's capacity to collect and analyze primary care data, study the health care of minority and underserved populations, and translate new research findings into practice. After successful completion of the planning phase, the 19 PBRNs will be able to compete for AHRQ funding for primary care research in key areas, such as patient safety and reducing health care disparities.
The PBRN institutions and principal investigators receiving AHRQ planning grants are:
American Academy of Family Physicians, Leawood, KS
The AAFP National Network for Family Practice and Primary Care Research is an emerging network that includes 110 clinicians from practices in 34 States and 4 Canadian provinces.
Herbert F. Young, M.D., M.A.
$121,388.
American Academy of Pediatrics, Elk Grove Village, IL, and University of Vermont, Burlington, VT
Pediatric Research in Office Settings (PROS) is a national network that includes practitioners from 540 pediatric practices in 49 States, Puerto Rico, and Canada.
Richard C. Wasserman, M.D., M.P.H.
$112,420.
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
The Baylor Practice-Based Research Network is an urban-based network whose purpose is to evaluate the effectiveness of primary care services delivered to ethnically and socioeconomically diverse populations in Houston.
Robert J. Volk, Ph.D.
$110,089.
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
The Research Association of Practicing Physicians is a network of 116 practices in northeast Ohio that focuses on the structures, processes, and outcomes of primary care practice.
Kurt C. Stange, M.D.,Ph.D.
$108,578.
Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago, IL
The Pediatric Practice Research Group is a Chicago-area network that for 16 years has been conducting studies on primary care for children.
Katherine Christoffel, M.D., M.P.H.
$108,000.
Children's Hospital Center, Cincinnati, OH
The Cincinnati Pediatric Research Group was established in 1996 to study a geographically and socioeconomically diverse pediatric population served by an array of health care facilities.
Michele Kiely, Ph.D.
$111,000.
Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH
The Dartmouth/Northern New England Primary Care Cooperative Research Network is the oldest primary care practice-based research network in the country and is composed chiefly of independent primary care clinicians who reside in New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont.
John H. Wasson, M.D.
$142,970.
Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN
Wishard Health Services and the primary care practices of the Indianapolis University School of Medicine have created ResNet, a research network that conducts studies related to medical informatics and the translation of research into clinical practice.
William M. Tierney, M.D.
$134,008.
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
The Great Lakes Research into Practice Network is a new, large network created through the merger of three established primary care PBRNs in the State of Michigan.
Henry C. Barry, M.D.
$99,404.
Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA
The Southeast Regional Clinicians' Network is composed of health care professionals working in 142 federally funded community health centers in eight Southern States.
George S. Rust, M.D., M.P.H.
$89,335.
Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY
The Mount Sinai Primary Care Practice-Based Research Network will combine the resources of academic department practices with community health centers serving the East Harlem and Central Harlem areas of New York City.
Albert L. Siu, M.D., M.P.H.
$125,650.
University of California, San Diego, CA
The San Diego Unified Family Medicine Research Network is an emerging network that focuses on the primary care of underserved populations in southern California.
Theodore G. Ganiats, M.D.
$112,337.
University of California, San Francisco, CA
The Collaborative Research Network, established in 1984 by the UCSF Department of Family and Community Medicine, will merge with the Community Health Network and Community Clinic Consortium of San Francisco to improve access to a large underserved urban patient population.
Mary S. Croughan-Minihane, Ph.D.
$132,750.
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO
The Colorado Research Network is focusing on health issues among underinsured and Hispanic people.
Wilson D. Pace, M.D.
$113,097.
University of Kansas, Wichita, KS
The Kansas Rural Practice Research Network is a new collaboration of the University of Kansas School of Medicine, the Great Plains Health Alliance, the Kansas Academy of Family Physicians, and the Kansas chapter of the American College of Physicians. The network will include practices located in medically underserved communities of less than 3,000 population in rural Kansas.
Ken Kallail, Ph.D.
$112,374.
University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, OK
The Oklahoma Physicians Resource/Research Network is a 6-year-old network of family physicians affiliated with the Oklahoma Academy of Family Physicians. The network plans to establish a collaborative relationship with the Oklahoma Native American Prevention Research Center.
James W. Mold, M.D., M.P.H.
$92,868.
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
The New Mexico Practice-based Resource and Research Network is an emerging network consisting of clinicians in community health centers, Indian Health Service sites, tribal health care facilities, and academic primary care sites whose major purpose is to study racial and ethnic disparities in health. The planning grant for this project is being funded in part by the U.S. Indian Health Service.
Robert L. Williams, M.D., M.P.H.
$107,827.
Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
The Virginia Ambulatory Care Outcomes Research Network is a developing network of primary care practices in Virginia that collects longitudinal data on the health status of primary care patients.
Steven H. Woolf, M.D., M.P.H.
$93,287.
Yale University School of Nursing, New Haven, CT
This network is composed of primary care advanced practice nurses who care for underserved populations in Southern New England.
Margaret Grey, Ph.D., BSN.
$111,919.