AHRQ Views: Healthcare’s Next Technological Frontier—21st Century Artificial Intelligence

AHRQ Stats: Long COVID Rates by Geographic Area

As of spring 2023, 19.7 percent of adults with a prior COVID-19 infection living outside of metropolitan statistical areas reported having experienced Long COVID, compared with 12.7 percent of those living in a metropolitan statistical area. (Source: AHRQ Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Statistical Brief #557, Prevalence of Long COVID Among Adults Who Have Ever Had COVID-19, by Selected Demographic and Socioeconomic Characteristics, U.S. Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population, Spring 2023.)

Today's Headlines:

• AHRQ Views: Healthcare’s Next Technological Frontier—21st Century Artificial Intelligence.
• Research Series Links Low Nurse Staffing to Workplace Quality.
• Register Now for Nov. 14 Webinar on Implementing Urinary Incontinence Management in Primary Care.
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network.
• Evidence Review Finds Evolving Definitions and Care Models for Long COVID.
• New Research and Evidence From AHRQ.
• Nov. 13 Webinar Will Honor Veterans and Explore Science and Medicine Careers at HHS.
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature.

AHRQ Views: Healthcare’s Next Technological Frontier—21st Century Artificial Intelligence

AHRQ’s support for research to advance artificial intelligence (AI) as a revolutionary force in healthcare delivery is the subject of a new AHRQ Views blog post. Enthusiasm has been high in response to a recent AHRQ Notice of Funding Opportunity for grant proposals to leverage AI to improve patient safety. This funding opportunity coincided with the 20th anniversary of AHRQ’s Digital Healthcare Research Program, which has helped to advance technologies like clinical decision support and telehealthcare. AHRQ has funded or is funding more than 50 research projects with an AI component, but the great promise of AI will only be achieved when current challenges are addressed, according to blog authors. Access the blog post, authored by AHRQ Director Robert Otto Valdez, Ph.D., M.H.S.A.; Chris Dymek, Ed.D., director of AHRQ’s Digital Healthcare Research Division; and Kevin Chaney, M.G.S., the division’s senior advisor for dissemination and innovation. To receive all blog posts, submit your email address.

Research Series Links Low Nurse Staffing to Workplace Quality

Workplace challenges are significant contributors to the nation’s hospital nursing staffing shortages, according to a series of AHRQ-funded studies. Authors asserted that addressing these concerns could substantially reduce nursing staff losses. Among the findings:

• Before the COVID-19 pandemic, 69 percent of nurses lacked confidence in hospital leadership – a percentage that rose to 78 percent after the pandemic began. (Nursing Outlook)
• Emotional exhaustion, insufficient staffing and family obligations were among the most significant reasons nurses quit their jobs. (JAMA Network Open)
• High patient volume with limited staff support leading to unanswered patient calls contributed to nurses not recommending their workplace to other clinicians. (JAMA Network Open)
• Each additional patient in the average nurse's workload before the pandemic was linked to a 20 percent increase in the chance of patient death. (International Journal of Nursing Studies)
• Increasing the quality of emergency department working conditions for nurses from “poor” to “mixed” or “mixed” to “better” significantly decreased average lengths of stay. (Journal of Emergency Nursing)
• Nurses who reported being overwhelmed by alarms faced 2.47 times greater odds of burnout. (Nursing Outlook)

Register Now for Nov. 14 Webinar on Implementing Urinary Incontinence Management in Primary Care

A webinar on Nov. 14 from 2:30 to 4 p.m. ET will explore real-world case studies on implementing urinary incontinence management. The webinar from AHRQ’s EvidenceNOW: Managing Urinary Incontinence initiative will highlight how two grantees implemented nonsurgical urinary incontinence interventions within primary care settings, focusing on provider education, feedback loops and workflow integration. Presenters will discuss the challenges and benefits of these approaches, as well as the publicly available tools and resources to enhance care and bridge the gap between evidence and practice. Register now.

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:

• Development and psychometric analysis of a patient-reported measure of diagnostic excellence for emergency and urgent care settings.
• Impact of patient safety bundle and team-based training on obstetric hypertensive emergencies.
• Specialized nurses' role in ensuring patient safety within the context of telehealth in home care: a scoping review.

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

Evidence Review Finds Evolving Definitions and Care Models for Long COVID

A new AHRQ evidence review sheds light on the evolving definitions and care models for Long COVID. Published in Annals of Internal Medicine in conjunction with an AHRQ technical brief, the article identified five definitions of Long COVID and examined 51 care models. The models were characterized by designation of a clinical department lead, implementation of a multidisciplinary approach, coordination of services and use of telehealth. While all models could serve underserved populations, they lack approaches specifically designed to address such populations. The authors noted that some efforts to implement Long COVID models of care have faced challenges due to burnout or concerns about financial sustainability. More detailed research is needed to optimize and evaluate these care models, the authors concluded, noting that current literature often lacks critical details and outcome data.

New Research and Evidence From AHRQ

• Systematic Review: Diagnosis and Treatment of Tethered Spinal Cord.

Nov. 13 Webinar Will Honor Veterans and Explore Science and Medicine Careers at HHS

A webinar on Nov. 13, from 1 to 3 p.m. ET, will showcase veterans excelling in diverse career opportunities in health science and medicine across HHS. Hosted by the HHS Assistant Secretary for Administration’s Office of Human Resources, the event will feature three veteran panelists from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health who will discuss how their military service shaped their career paths. The event is open to the public but is geared toward veterans, military service members and those interested in military service. Register now or contact the Veterans Employment Program Officer at vets@hhs.gov with questions.

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Pediatric open notes: caregiver experiences since the 21st Century Cures Act. Kelly MM, Kieren MQ, Coller RJ, et al. Acad Pediatr 2024 May-Jun;24(4):556-8. Epub 2023 Oct 2. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Universal substance use care for adolescents with chronic medical conditions: a protocol to examine equitable implementation determinants and strategies for SBIRT at a pediatric hospital. Williams FS, Garofalo R, Karnik NS, et al. Addict Sci Clin Pract 2024 Sep 11;19(1):67. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Care transition management and patient outcomes in hospitalized Medicare beneficiaries. Ouayogodé MH, Hardy B, Mullahy J, et al. Am J Manag Care 2024 Sep;30(9):e266-e73. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Association between mandatory bundled payments and changes in socioeconomic disparities for joint replacement outcomes. Kilaru AS, Liao JM, Wang E, et al. Health Serv Res 2024 Oct;59(5):e14369. Epub 2024 Aug 11. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Antibiotics not associated with shorter duration or reduced severity of acute lower respiratory tract infection. Merenstein DJ, Barrett B, Ebell MH. J Gen Intern Med 2024 Aug;39(10):1887-94. Epub 2024 Apr 15. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Impact of hospitalizations on problematic medication use among community-dwelling persons with dementia. Deardorff WJ, Jing B, Growdon ME, et al. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 2024 Nov;79(11). Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Incorporating patient, caregiver, and provider perspectives in the co-design of an app to guide Hospital at Home admission decisions: a qualitative analysis. Kowalkowski M, Eaton T, Reeves KW, et al. JAMIA Open 2024 Oct;7(3):ooae079. Epub 2024 Aug 16. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

An explainable long short-term memory network for surgical site infection identification. Kiser AC, Shi J, Bucher BT. Surgery 2024 Jul;176(1):24-31. Epub 2024 Apr 18. Access the abstract on PubMed®.