New Tool Helps Manage Opioid Use in Older Adults

AHRQ Stats: Racial/Ethnic Differences in Insurance

In 2021, 95 percent of non-Hispanic Asian people had some form of health insurance, the most of any group, followed by 93.4 percent of White people, 92.5 percent of multiracial people, 80 percent of Black people and 78.2 percent of Hispanic people. (Source: AHRQ 2023 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report [PDF, 9 MB]) 

Today's Headlines:

• New Tool Helps Manage Opioid Use in Older Adults.
• Grantee Profile Highlights Work of Anuj Dalal, M.D., To Improve Patient Safety With Digital Health Tools.
• AHRQ Issue Brief Addresses Current State of Diagnostic Safety and Highlights Key Gaps in Knowledge.
• Using Machine Learning May Improve Patient Safety Reporting.
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network.
• Register Now for Feb. 27 Webinar on Integrating Patient-Reported Outcomes Into Practice.
• New Research and Evidence From AHRQ.
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature.

New Tool Helps Manage Opioid Use in Older Adults

A new online tool developed by AHRQ supports efforts by primary care practices and healthcare systems to improve opioid medication management and prevent opioid misuse and opioid use disorder in older adults. The Opioids in Older Adults Compendium allows users to explore potential “high-level changes” that may improve opioid management, including tracking data to provide insights into patients’ opioid use, developing workflows to promote team-based care, using shared decision making to provide individualized care, and increasing referrals to nonpharmacologic chronic pain management. Case studies and key activities with tools and resources are provided to support improved care. Access the compendium.

Grantee Profile Highlights Work of Anuj Dalal, M.D., To Improve Patient Safety With Digital Health Tools

Anuj Dalal, M.D., associate physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, is helping to reduce adverse events during care transitions with digital health interventions that improve patient safety and outcomes. With funding from AHRQ, Dr. Dalal has designed, developed and implemented digital health tools that promote patient engagement, facilitate effective patient-clinician communication and automate workflow tasks by leveraging the electronic health record and patient-generated health data. Check out Dr. Dalal’s profile and the profiles of other AHRQ grantees.

AHRQ Issue Brief Addresses Current State of Diagnostic Safety and Highlights Key Gaps in Knowledge

Diagnostic errors have emerged as a major patient safety concern. A new issue brief—Current State of Diagnostic Safety: Implications for Research, Practice, and Policy—presents the results of a rapid narrative review and expert interviews to determine the current state of diagnostic safety and highlights key gaps in knowledge. The brief covers the past decade of progress in the field and identifies the current state of science and gaps in diagnostic safety work within 10 domains. Access the issue brief and other AHRQ publications related to diagnostic safety.

Using Machine Learning May Improve Patient Safety Reporting

Machine learning algorithms have the potential to improve the categorization of medication-related patient safety event reports, which may lead to better identification of important medication safety patterns and trends, according to an AHRQ-funded article published in Scientific Reports. Researchers analyzed 3,861 medication-related reports using data from urban and rural hospitals to measure the performance of three natural language processing models (logistic regression, elastic net and XGBoost). They concluded that patient safety organizations and other groups can use these findings to improve how medication-related patient safety events are categorized and identify patterns that can impact patient medication safety. Future work should consider leveraging large language models like GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) and BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) and comparing performance to the three algorithms used in this study, researchers concluded. Access the abstract.

Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network

AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network (PSNet) highlights journal articles, books and tools related to patient safety. Articles featured this week include:

• Characteristics and patient impact of boarding in the pediatric emergency department, 2018-2022.
• Clinical deterioration as a nurse sensitive indicator in the out-of-hospital context: a scoping review.
• Interprofessional learning in multidisciplinary healthcare teams is associated with reduced patient mortality: a quantitative systematic review and meta-analysis.

Review additional new publications in PSNet’s current issue or access recent cases and commentaries in AHRQ’s WebM&M (Morbidity and Mortality Rounds on the Web).

Register Now for Feb. 27 Webinar on Integrating Patient-Reported Outcomes Into Practice

Registration is open for a webinar on Feb. 27 from 3 to 4:30 p.m. ET on strategies to expand the use of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in health systems despite challenges. Speakers will highlight recent research projects that provided insights into how PROs may be used to enhance care for patients with varying health conditions. Examples will include how to implement patient-reported outcomes across rheumatology practices; understanding the benefits and challenges of using a mobile application to collect PRO data on medication adherence in pharmacies; and how patient preferences may influence how PRO measures are used and may enhance shared decision-making in orthopedic care. The webinar will be sponsored by AHRQ’s Digital Healthcare Research Program.

New Research and Evidence From AHRQ

• Comparative Effectiveness Review (draft open for comment): Nonpharmacologic Treatments for Maternal Mental Health Conditions.

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Considerations for using predictive models that include race as an input variable: the case study of lung cancer screening. Stevens ER, Caverly T, Butler JM, et al. J Biomed Inform 2023 Nov;147:104525. Epub 2023 Oct 14. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Excellence in antibiotic stewardship: a mixed methods study comparing high, medium, and low performing hospitals. Vaughn VM, Krein SL, Hersh A, et al. Clin Infect Dis 2023 Dec 6. [Epub ahead of print.] Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Syndromic antibiograms and nursing home clinicians' antibiotic choices for urinary tract infections. Taylor LN, Wilson BM, Singh M, et al. JAMA Netw Open 2023 Dec;6(12):e2349544. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Adolescent access to clinicians' notes: adolescent, parent, and clinician perspectives. Sprackling CM, Kieren MQ, Nacht CL, et al. J Adolesc Health 2024 Jan;74(1):155-60. Epub 2023 Oct 11. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Assessing health care leadership and management for resilience and performance during crisis: the HERO-36. Atkinson MK, Biddinger PD, Chughtai MA, et al. Health Care Manage Rev 2024 Jan-Mar;49(1):14-22. Epub 2023 Nov 28. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

CancelRx case study: implications for clinic and community pharmacy work systems. Watterson TL, Stone JA, Kleinschmidt PC, et al. BMC Health Serv Res 2023 Dec 6;23(1):1360. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Emergency department patient-centred care perspectives from deaf and hard-of-hearing patients. James TG, Sullivan MK, McKee MM, et al. Health Expect 2023 Dec;26(6):2374-86. Epub 2023 Aug 9. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

A brief screening and assessment tool for opioid use in adults: results from a validation study of the Tobacco, Alcohol, Prescription Medication, and Other Substances Tool. Bunting AM, Schwartz RP, Wu LT, et al. J Addict Med 2023 Jul-Aug;17(4):471-3. Epub 2023 Feb 4. Access the abstract on PubMed®.