About this Report
This report summarizes the research activities and outcomes funded by the AHRQ Digital Healthcare Research Program in 2020. The objective of the report is to support AHRQ stakeholders, including clinicians, health systems, policymakers, researchers, and patients to:
- Learn about the goals of research funded by the Digital Healthcare Research Program.
- Discover the innovative health technologies developed and tested by AHRQ-funded researchers, including new and emerging research funded in 2020.
- Understand how the Digital Healthcare Research Program improves healthcare quality and safety at the patient, provider, and health systems levels.
- Gain insight from the spotlighted work that underscore the patient, provider, and healthcare systems focus of every AHRQ-funded research project.
- Access knowledge and products disseminated by AHRQ’s Digital Healthcare-funded researchers to enhance knowledge transfer and the replication of successful strategies that improve patient safety and healthcare quality.
Research Summary
The Digital Healthcare Research Program funds research to create actionable findings around “what and how digital healthcare technologies work best” for its key stakeholders: patients, clinicians, and health systems working to improve healthcare quality and safety.
The Research Summary highlights the impact AHRQ-funded research has on strengthening patient engagement to improve care and shared decision making, supporting clinicians to improve decision making and patients’ care and providing optimal health services to their patients, and improving the delivery of health services at the health systems or organizational level. The Summary is organized by these areas as depicted below.
Research Spotlight
The Research Spotlight highlights some of the most impactful work funded by the AHRQ Digital Healthcare Research Program: ongoing research investment on telehealth and technologies to enable the collection of patient-generated health data to support patient care that’s effective, safe, affordable, and equitable.
Research Dissemination
The Digital Healthcare Research Program-funded researchers share and disseminate their research findings in many ways, including publishing in peer-reviewed journals and presenting at health- and IT-focused conferences and AHRQ web conferences.
