AHRQ Grantee Profiles

Improving the Quality of Care for Women With Urinary Incontinence
Jennifer Anger, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor and Vice Chair of Research
Department of Urology
University of California San Diego Health
“Even when patients were very bothered by incontinence, neither they nor the provider brought it up during healthcare appointments. There is a missing link, and my AHRQ-funded study is helping to fill the gap.” More >>

Investigating Interventions to Reduce Unsafe Use of Antibiotics
Larissa Grigoryan, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine
Baylor College of Medicine
“It is wonderful that AHRQ offers funding focusing on patient safety, particularly for underserved populations. With AHRQ’s help, my goal is to improve antibiotic use and minimize antimicrobial resistance.” More >>

Paving the Road: Translating Evidence-based Research into Practice 
Ralph Gonzales, M.D., M.S.P.H.
Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology & Biostatistics, and Health Policy
University of California San Francisco, School of Medicine
Chief Innovation Officer, UCSF Health 
“Funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) provided the basis for knowledge generation, accelerating my translational research work, and putting evidence into practice. Over time, AHRQ funding was also fundamental in supporting my efforts to develop career and scientific training programs that accelerated learning health systems research and implementation science.”  More >>

Using Technology to Alert Clinicians to Potential Allergy, Drug Interactions
Li Zhou, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Lead investigator, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
“I really appreciate how AHRQ looks for ways to use technology to improve patient care.” More >>

Developing and Implementing Educational Resources to Address Perinatal Mental Health
Jenn Leiferman, Ph.D.
Chair and Professor
University of Colorado-Denver
“Since early in my research career, I have been focused on what we could do to ensure that every child has the best possible start in life. This led me to examine prevention and early intervention resources to promote healthy pregnancies and child outcomes.” More >>

Analyzing Big Datasets to Improve Healthcare Quality, Equity
Tina Hernandez-Boussard, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Associate Dean of Research
Stanford University School of Medicine
“Large clinical datasets contain a goldmine of information on healthcare quality and safety. With funding from AHRQ, I’ve analyzed these datasets to provide clinicians with knowledge to improve surgical outcomes and reduce harms.” More >>

Tailoring Digital Technologies To Improve Outcomes Among Minorities With Chronic Conditions
Antoinette Schoenthaler, Ed.D.
Associate Director
Center for Healthful Behavior Change
New York University Langone Health
“Funding from AHRQ has been instrumental in supporting the development of interventions to address the determinants of poor adherence to self-management behaviors.” More >>

Using Technology with a Fundamental Focus on the Patient
David H. Gustafson, Ph.D.
Professor and Researcher
University of Wisconsin–Madison
“AHRQ has always been open to letting us see if we can do the impossible.” More >>

Using Digital Health Tools to Improve Patient Safety during Acute Care
Anuj Dalal, M.D.
Associate Physician, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
“If we want to ensure safe, seamless care transitions for patients recovering from hospitalization, we need to use our IT systems and digital tools more effectively to support patients and clinicians.” More >>

Integrating Clinical Prediction Rules into EHRs to Improve Care, Reduce Waste
Thomas McGinn, M.D., M.P.H.
Executive Vice President of Physician Enterprise
Common Spirit Health
“Very early on, AHRQ understood the language and the work.” More >>

Advancing Academic and Practical Knowledge To Prevent Infections From Hospital to Home
Susan Huang, M.D., M.P.H.
Medical Director of Epidemiology and Infection Prevention
Professor, Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine
University of California, Irvine Medical Center
"Understanding how to prevent infections in all settings of care is critical to keeping patients safe." More >>

Improving Patient Safety in Healthcare
Rollin J. Fairbanks, M.D., M.S.
Senior Vice President and Chief Quality and Safety Officer
MedStar Health
“With support from AHRQ, I’ve been able to influence the way that healthcare leaders think about safety...” More >>

Improving Healthcare Using Engineering Principles
Ayse P. Gurses, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.S.
Founding Director, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Care Human Factors
Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality
Johns Hopkins Medicine
“My career pathway would be much different if AHRQ didn’t exist....” More >>

Reducing Harms from Unsafe Use of Antibiotics and Preventing the Spread of Antibiotic Resistance
Barbara Wells Trautner, M.D., Ph.D.
Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center
Baylor College of Medicine
“Without funding from agencies such as AHRQ, I could not conduct this kind of research on antibiotic stewardship. AHRQ’s focus on the delivery of healthcare is unique among funding agencies.” More >>

Protecting Patients from Drug-Drug Medication Errors
Daniel C. Malone, Ph.D.
Professor of Pharmacotherapy
Skaggs College of Pharmacy
University of Utah
“With funding from AHRQ, I’ve helped ensure that warnings for drug-drug interactions are appropriate and useful to clinicians and pharmacists, reducing harm to patients.” More >>

Designing and Testing Novel Solutions To Make Labor and Delivery Safer for Moms and Newborns
Louis P. Halamek, M.D.
Neonatologist
Stanford Medicine Children’s Health – Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital
“AHRQ is a unique funding agency, one that is incredibly valuable to investigators like me, who seek to address the challenging problems that we encounter every day in delivering care to our patients.” More >>

Preventing Medication Errors Among Children With Chronic Conditions in Outpatient and Home Settings
Kathleen Walsh, M.D., M.Sc.
Director, Patient Safety Research Core
Boston Children’s Hospital
“AHRQ funding enables researchers to build a body of work that advances healthcare quality and safety.” More >>

Disseminating Evidence-based Strategies to Improve Primary Care Delivery
Abel Kho, M.D., M.S.
Professor, Feinberg School of Medicine
Northwestern University
“With AHRQ funding, I have built infrastructure to provide primary care practices with effective quality improvement strategies, benefiting a greater number of patients.” More >>

Developing Innovative Simulation-Based Training to Improve Patient Safety in Radiation Oncology
Lukasz Mazur, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology
UNC School of Medicine
“AHRQ funding enabled me and my team to develop innovative simulation-based training strategies and measure their impact.” More >>

Human Factors in Surgery: Shifting the Paradigm on Patient Safety
Kenneth Catchpole, Ph.D.
Professor of Human Factors
Vice Chair of Clinical Informatics
Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine
Medical University of South Carolina
“Human factors engineering in clinical settings is still relatively rare. AHRQ funding has enabled me to teach my team this way of thinking and send them out into the real world.” More >>

Transforming Health Outcomes for Patients with Chronic Conditions Using Tailored Health Information Technology
David Dorr, M.D.
Chief Research Information Officer
Vice Chair of Clinical Informatics
Professor of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology
Oregon Health & Science University
“The knowledge of how to address the needs of people with multiple chronic conditions and health-related social needs has been substantially advanced by AHRQ’s funding.” More >>

Identifying Strategies to Improve Medication Safety at Home
Yan Xiao, Ph.D.
Professor of Nursing and Engineering
College of Nursing and Health Innovation
University of Texas at Arlington
“AHRQ is unique in its support of collaboration among researchers of varying and diverse disciplines, which is key to innovation and sustained improvement.” More >>

Focusing on Patients to Reduce Healthcare-Associated Infections During Transitions to Home Care
Sara Keller, M.D., M.P.H.
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
“AHRQ really took a chance on me, allowing me to look into an under-researched area.” More >>

Reducing Patient Falls with Evidence-based Tools
Patricia Dykes, Ph.D., R.N.
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
“Patient falls can result in traumatic and costly outcomes. With AHRQ funding, I’ve been able to provide hospitals and primary care practices with falls prevention tools that can be incorporated into routine care.” More >>

Applying Human Factors to Make it Easier for Clinicians to Do Their Jobs
Kristen E. Miller, Dr.P.H., M.S.P.H., M.S.L.
Senior Scientific Director
National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare
MedStar Health, Washington, D.C.
“The majority of my research portfolio are implementation-related projects, which nicely aligns with AHRQ’s mission of practical, applied research. It’s not research for research’s sake. We’re improving patient safety and quality at the point of care.” More >>

Enhancing Healthcare Quality for Hospitalized Children
Sunitha Kaiser, M.D., M.Sc.
Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Epidemiology and Biostatistics
University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)
“I cannot overstate the tremendous impact that AHRQ funding has had on my career. It has allowed me to address important research questions, receive valuable mentorship, and strengthen my knowledge in the pediatric healthcare field.” More >>

Designing Innovative Health Information Technology to Reduce Healthcare Disparities
Rupa Valdez, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Biomedical Informatics
Department of Public Health Sciences
University of Virginia
“AHRQ funding has allowed me to create a strong foundation for the inclusive design of consumer health information technologies. I’ve been able to focus on needs assessments that are essential for creating inclusive and appropriate systems for ethnic and racial minorities and people with disabilities who have chronic conditions.” More >>

Improving Primary Care Delivery for Women and Rural Communities
Barbara Yawn, M.D., M.Sc.
Adjunct Professor, Department of Family and Community Health
University of Minnesota
“With AHRQ funding, I was able to conduct primary care research on chronic conditions affecting women and residents of rural communities—the types of patients I saw every day but who were not covered in research studies.” More >>

Researching Strategies for High-Quality, High-Value Care to Improve Patient Outcomes
Xiao Xu, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences
Yale School of Medicine
“I was trained in health economics and outcomes research, and have always been interested in improving quality and outcomes of care while balancing the cost implications. AHRQ funding has helped to elevate the quality of my research and the breadth of my projects.” More >>

Improving Medication Safety for Older Adults
Michelle Chui, Pharm.D., Ph.D.
Professor, and Director of Sonderegger Research Center for Improved Medication Use
University of Wisconsin – Madison
“With funding from AHRQ, I have been able to look at medication safety from a systems perspective and develop tools that community pharmacists can use to reduce patient harm.” More >>

Assessing the Impact of Value-Based Purchasing Programs
Teresa M. Waters, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Department of Health Management and Policy
University of Kentucky School of Public Health
“AHRQ’s value cannot be overstated. We know a lot of what works in basic and clinical sciences, but we don’t focus on what actually happens when we translate that knowledge into the bigger world. AHRQ is absolutely focused on what happens in the bigger world.” More >>

Implementing Catheter Guidance to Improve Appropriate Use and Patient Outcomes
Vineet Chopra, M.D., M.Sc.
Chair, Department of Medicine
University of Colorado School of Medicine
“As a hospitalist, I saw a gap in knowledge related to vascular access devices, especially peripherally inserted central catheters. AHRQ support is helping me to fill this gap, improving patient safety.” More >>

Improving Quality of Care and Patient Safety with Evidence-based Management Practices
Ann Scheck McAlearney, Sc.D., M.S.
Associate Dean for Health Services Research
Distinguished Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine
Ohio State University College of Medicine
“With AHRQ funding, I have been able to look at how we can use management practices, rather than just clinical practice improvements, to address performance and patient safety issues, and then widely disseminate this information so that it can be applied.” More >>