This report aims to showcase the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ's) broad and deep investments in primary care research and introduce AHRQ's National Center for Excellence in Primary Care Research (NCEPCR). To do this, we provide an overview across AHRQ's primary care grants and contracts, highlight studies with potential to impact the primary care field, and share resources that may be useful for researchers and clinicians. In addition, we discuss existing gaps in AHRQ's investments and potential future areas of focus for NCEPCR.
In this report we define "primary care research" as that which meets at least one of the following criteria:
- is conducted in a primary care setting;
- is about primary care patients, clinicians, or teams;
- is focused on a topic integral to the primary care setting; or
- has clear implications for the delivery of primary care.
Information about the methods used to develop this report are included in Appendix A.
How To Navigate the Report
The content of this report is organized into the following sections:
- Background on AHRQ's National Center for Excellence in Primary Care Research
This section introduces NCEPCR and shares the center's goals and vision. We also share some history of AHRQ’s primary care research investments. - Overview of AHRQ’s Recent Investments in Primary Care Research
This section includes a high-level analysis of AHRQ's portfolio of primary care research in 2021 and 2022, including information about the funding committed to grants and contracts during this period. Information about those investments includes the types of grants, types of organizations that received the grant funding, and where those organizations are located. - Future Directions for NCEPCR
In this section, we discuss NCEPCR’s plans for a primary care research agenda and share feedback and suggestions from primary care stakeholders on future directions for NCEPCR, including a discussion of identified gaps in AHRQ’s current funding. - AHRQ's Recent Primary Care Grants and Resources
This section provides more detailed information about AHRQ's primary care research related grants and resources, organized into key topic areas and additional topic areas. Each topic area includes: an introduction to the topic, information about each grant that fits primarily in the topic area, links to more in-depth summaries for a few grants, and information about relevant AHRQ initiatives and resources.
The key topic areas are:
- Practice and Quality improvement
- Healthcare Systems and Infrastructure
- Digital Healthcare
- Person-Centered Care
- Behavioral Health and Substance Use Disorders
- Health Equity
- Primary Care Workforce
- Public Health and Community integration
The additional topic areas are:
- COVID-19
- Patient Safety
- Appendices
The appendices include additional information to supplement the main body of this report.
- Appendix A: Approach and Methods describes the methods we used to develop this report, including how the content was compiled and analyzed.
- Appendix B: Other AHRQ Programs Relevant for Primary Care Research Audiences includes information about additional AHRQ investments, initiatives, and resources that may be of interest to primary care researchers and clinicians. This includes information about the Effective Health Care (EHC) Program, and the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF).
- Appendix C: Additional Tables by Topic Area compiles lists of grants described throughout this report, organized by the following themes: COVID-19, Clinical Decision Support, Multiple Chronic Conditions, Opioids, Patient Safety, Telehealth, and Women's Health/Reproductive Health.
- Appendix D: Grant Summaries includes short summaries highlighting potentially high impact grants, including both Research Profiles (for studies with at least preliminary findings) and Emerging Research Spotlights (which do not yet have findings), which are linked to from throughout the report.
