New Award to AcademyHealth for Research on High-Value, Equitable Care
Donaghue has recently awarded a 30-month award to AcademyHealth to facilitate their development of a research agenda that will support higher-value and equitable health care.
As health care costs continue to rise and health disparities persist, the need to redesign our health care system to deliver better, more equitable care is paramount — and to do so we must have a strong evidence base grounded in the needs of our communities that will inform this work.
Using a collaborative approach, this project sets out to:
- Frame and define high-value, equitable care
- Generate a research agenda aimed at improving health care value and equity
- Disseminate and gain traction for the research agenda
- Foster a thriving and inclusive Research Community focused on high-value, equitable care
AcademyHealth will work in close collaboration with the Donaghue Foundation and relevant stakeholders to ensure these efforts address the needs of health care systems, researchers, patients, and the broader community. They will convene a consensus group to guide their work and invite key stakeholders to generate and prioritize research questions for the development of a research agenda focused on high-value, equitable care. The agenda will be widely disseminated, including targeted outreach to key funders and policy leaders to spur action on priority research areas. The project will also support and foster a Research Community on high-value, equitable care, and sharing information about promising research, practices, and policies to advance health care value and equity.
Previous work by AcademyHealth that was funded by Donaghue and the ABIM Foundation brought a focus on the concept of low-value care as experienced by different communities. The experience of this thematic workgroup is described in a Health Affairs blog post, and the authors said:
“We conclude that the term ‘low-value care’ is a concerning term to use with a wide array of health care stakeholders, and it is an easily misconstrued and potentially volatile term to use with African American and Latinx communities. Thus, the most important thing for the health care system to do is ensure that patient populations receive care that is more beneficial than harmful…This moment calls for a re-examination of what low-value and high-value care means to the well-being of communities of color.”
Since its inception, AcademyHealth has been advancing this field by acting as an objective broker of information, bringing together stakeholders to address the current and future needs of an evolving health system, inform health policy and practice, and translate evidence into action. As the professional home and leading national organization for health services researchers, policymakers, and health care practitioners and stakeholders, AcademyHealth — together with its members — increases the understanding of methods and data used in the field, enhances the professional skills of researchers and research users, and expands awareness.