Conducting Measurement Activities in Support of the AHRQ Health IT Initiative

Proposed Project Over the past 35 years, AHRQ and its predecessor agencies have made adoption of health information technology (IT) an agency priority. In addition, AHRQ-supported research has helped to demonstrate the potential of health IT to enhance health care quality and patient safety. As the lead federal research agency on the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care in America, AHRQ plays a central role in efforts to increase the adoption of health IT. Consistent with its mission, AHRQ proposes to develop measures of four indicators of performance of its health IT portfolio, namely: 1. Reduction in medication errors due to adoption of electronic prescribing systems; 2. The number of persons who can access their medication information online; 3. The number of clinicians who can electronically access evidence-based prevention or treatment information; and 4. The number of clinician organizations who have adopted evidence-based decision support technologies. While secondary data are available to calculate measures 1, 3 and 4 described above, no national data exist for measure 2. Thus, this proposed information collection relates to measure 2: The number of persons who can access their medication information online.