Implementing Diagnostic Excellence Across Systems (IDEAS)
Take part in a national study to evaluate the impact of resources intended to help prevent diagnostic safety events.
Diagnostic safety events are common and pervasive across all healthcare settings, contributing to preventable harm in one in 20 outpatient visits and up to 250,000 inpatient stays each year. Healthcare organizations and clinicians need actionable, practical, and flexible resources to support diagnostic safety improvement efforts.
- Toolkit for Engaging Patients To Improve Diagnostic Safety
- Measure Dx Tool
- Calibrate Dx Tool
- View a Webinar Recording
What Is the IDEAS Project?
Improving patient safety, including diagnostic safety, is key to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) mission to support the delivery of high-quality healthcare. AHRQ recently supported the development of several resources to help prevent diagnostic safety events.
AHRQ is leading Implementing Diagnostic Excellence Across Systems (IDEAS), a national study to evaluate the impact of these resources. RAND has been contracted by AHRQ to recruit and support healthcare organizations to implement one or more of three diagnostic safety resources:
Toolkit for Engaging Patients To Improve Diagnostic Safety
The Toolkit for Engaging Patients To Improve Diagnostic Safety helps patients prepare for their visit and guides clinicians to engage in active listening without interruption in the first minute of the patient encounter.
Measure Dx
Measure Dx helps healthcare organizations detect and learn from diagnostic safety events. Key steps include preparing the organization for diagnostic safety measurement, assessing organizational readiness for change, offering specific measurement strategies, and providing guidance for analyzing data and translating findings into clinical practice.
Calibrate Dx
Calibrate Dx helps clinicians improve their diagnostic decision making through a structured process of identifying and reviewing cases with feedback and tools to assess and calibrate diagnostic performance.
Can My Organization Use More Than One of These Resources?
Yes, you can. We encourage interested organizations to enroll as many of their sites as possible in the study. A site can be a hospital unit or department, office-based practice, or training program, for example.
What Is the Timeline for IDEAS?
Recruitment and enrollment of healthcare organizations interested in participating in this 2-year implementation and evaluation effort is underway.
Training for each resource will be offered during the following timeframes, followed by implementation:
- Toolkit for Engaging Patients to Improve Diagnostic Safety: March-May 2025.
- Measure Dx: June-August 2025.
- Calibrate Dx: August-October 2025.
How Can I Learn More About Participating in IDEAS?
Select the button below to ask for more information or to be enrolled in the study. You can also view one of our recorded webinars or email IDEASproject@rand.org.
