Using Health IT in Practice-Based Research NetworksTo Improve Patient Care

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has identified a gap in health care and public health practitioners’ knowledge of health information technology (IT) using multiple mechanisms, including the findings of the continuing education (CE) planning group. This series of Webinars is designed to increase practitioners’ ability to improve health care decision making, support patient-centered care, and improve the quality and safety of care through the use of health IT. Primary care practice-based research networks (PBRNs) involve practicing clinicians in asking and answering clinical and organizational questions central to primary health care. Increasingly, health IT and health information exchange (HIE) play a key role in supporting the research carried out by these PBRNs, thus providing research findings relevant to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service’s (CMS) financial incentives of for the “meaningful use” of certified electronic health records (EHRs). This session will highlight findings of three PBRN projects: a) the development of health IT evidence-based tools to improve health care decisionmaking related to HPV vaccinations and early successes in translation to new environments and systems; b) an overview of the Regional Health eDecisions Guidebook outlining the feasibility and process for connecting EHRs to receive HIE-based decision support through the Preventive Services Reminder System (PSRS); and c) research to identify an after-visit summary that is both useful to the patient and can be transmitted electronically to other providers involved in that patient’s care.