Creation of a next-generation public safety communications network needs to be led by a single non-profit organization according to a report recently released by a NIST Federal Advisory Committee. NIST supports public safety communications and operates a testbed at its Boulder Colorado campus.
The report compiled by NIST’s Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT) was discussed at a number of meetings where input was collected from the communications and public safety communities as well as the public.
The network will support voice, video and data transmissions, and ideally be at the disposal of all first responders whether they are medical, emergency, law enforcement, or military personnel if they happen to be the first on the scene where events are taking that are threatening public safety.
Public safety communications reach across many geographical, jurisdictional and technological lines, involving federal, state, and local agencies, as well as private organizations and even volunteers. All of these entities have different procedures, budgets, and existing technologies that must be coordinated to create an effective communications solution for the country.
The report concludes that a public safety communications network should:
• Incorporate commercial technology where appropriate
• Extend commercial technology to achieve robustness
• Provide for backward compatibility or interoperability through standards adopted and developed where feasible and be interoperable with existing and new 911 systems
• Give high priority to cost-effectiveness, ease of use, and affordability
• Take advantage of the internet and other packet-based technologies to support multi-media communications and mobile ad hoc network formation
• Incorporate strong, federated authentication and other security technology to positively identify and authorize personnel and equipment permitted in the system
• Incorporate advanced position location capabilities, including indoor and underground locations
• Make extensive use of open national or international standards and where appropriate open source software
• Adapt to new technologies as they are developed
Go to www.nist.gov/director/vcat/upload/Desirable_Properties_of_a_National_PSN.pdf to view the report.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
HHS Announces Two FOAs
The challenge is to integrate mental health at the same time when chronic disease care is being administered. To meet the need, NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) posted a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) February 3, 2012. The FOA seeks research project grant applications to provide cost-effective integrated care interventions for the treatment of patients with co-morbid mental and chronic physical illnesses in low and middle income countries (LMIC).
Researchers will use innovative technologies such as mobile phones and telehealth interventions, along with information systems to help manage people with co-morbid mental and chronic health conditions living in LMICs. Researchers will also test models to be used for resource sharing, communication, case referral, and service planning.
Institutions of higher learning, non-profits, for-profits, state, county local governments, are invited to apply. Funds for the FOA titled “Grand Challenges in Global Mental Health: Integrating Mental Health into Chronic Disease Care Provision in Low and Middle Income Countries” (RFA-MH-13-040) are anticipated to be approximately $2,000,000 in FY 2012 and provide funding for up to four awards.
Go to http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-MH-13-040.html for more information.
NIH, CDC, FDA, and ACF on January 31st released an FOA seeking SBIR/STTR grant applications from small businesses. The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) goals are to improve health by accelerating the application of biomedical technologies.
These are just a few of the specific needs that NIBIB is requesting through their SBIR/STTR FOA:
• Develop software and hardware for telehealth studies with broad applications as well as do early stage development of telehealth technologies, along with research to address usability and implementation issues in remote settings
• Research is needed to develop technology to standardize and incorporate state-of-the-art security protocols for verifying user identities and to preserve patient confidentiality across remote access
• Develop new technologies to collect, store, retrieve, and integrate quantitative data along with large-scale data-driven methods to support data mining, statistical analysis, systems biology, and modeling efforts
• Develop medical devices and implants to enable exploratory research on next generation concepts for diagnostic and therapeutic devices, develop tools for assessing host-implant interactions, perform studies to prevent adverse events, and develop predictive models and methods to assess the useful life of devices
For the SBIR program total funding for awardees may not exceed $150,000 for Phase I awards and $1,000,000 for Phase II awards.
For more information on research topics from NIBIB and other agencies, go to http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-12-088.html. Go to page 4 and click on “PHS 2012-2 SBIR/STTR Program Descriptions and Research Topics for NIH, CDC, FDA, and ACF” For addition information, email Todd Merchak at merchakt@mail.nih.gov or call (301) 496-8592.
Researchers will use innovative technologies such as mobile phones and telehealth interventions, along with information systems to help manage people with co-morbid mental and chronic health conditions living in LMICs. Researchers will also test models to be used for resource sharing, communication, case referral, and service planning.
Institutions of higher learning, non-profits, for-profits, state, county local governments, are invited to apply. Funds for the FOA titled “Grand Challenges in Global Mental Health: Integrating Mental Health into Chronic Disease Care Provision in Low and Middle Income Countries” (RFA-MH-13-040) are anticipated to be approximately $2,000,000 in FY 2012 and provide funding for up to four awards.
Go to http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-MH-13-040.html for more information.
NIH, CDC, FDA, and ACF on January 31st released an FOA seeking SBIR/STTR grant applications from small businesses. The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) goals are to improve health by accelerating the application of biomedical technologies.
These are just a few of the specific needs that NIBIB is requesting through their SBIR/STTR FOA:
• Develop software and hardware for telehealth studies with broad applications as well as do early stage development of telehealth technologies, along with research to address usability and implementation issues in remote settings
• Research is needed to develop technology to standardize and incorporate state-of-the-art security protocols for verifying user identities and to preserve patient confidentiality across remote access
• Develop new technologies to collect, store, retrieve, and integrate quantitative data along with large-scale data-driven methods to support data mining, statistical analysis, systems biology, and modeling efforts
• Develop medical devices and implants to enable exploratory research on next generation concepts for diagnostic and therapeutic devices, develop tools for assessing host-implant interactions, perform studies to prevent adverse events, and develop predictive models and methods to assess the useful life of devices
For the SBIR program total funding for awardees may not exceed $150,000 for Phase I awards and $1,000,000 for Phase II awards.
For more information on research topics from NIBIB and other agencies, go to http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-12-088.html. Go to page 4 and click on “PHS 2012-2 SBIR/STTR Program Descriptions and Research Topics for NIH, CDC, FDA, and ACF” For addition information, email Todd Merchak at merchakt@mail.nih.gov or call (301) 496-8592.
Washington State News
The Washington State Health Care Authority has selected Deloitte Consulting LLP as the successful vendor to design, develop, and implement the state’s Health Benefit Exchange IT system with a $23 million grant. The Authority will begin contact negotiations and hopes to begin the project with the vendor in February.
A nine member governing board appointed by Governor Gregoire in December will begin to govern the program in March 2012. The Board will oversee ongoing design and development activities and eventually be responsible for the operation of the Exchange. The Board will also provide input on any further legislation needed to move the project forward and also help shape the state’s request for additional federal funding available this year.
The Health Care Authority has also announced that five health plans have been evaluated and are qualified as successful bidders on 2012-2013 contracts that will provide managed care for more than 700,000 Medicaid clients and Basic Health subscribers in the state.
The health plans include Amerigroup, Community Health Plan of Washington, Coordinated Care Corporation, Molina Healthcare of Washington, and UnitedHealthcare Community Plan. Two other health plans that bid on the contracts were Premera and Columbia United Providers. The next step is to finalize the contracts with the successful bidders, a step the Health Care Authority expects to complete by the end of February.
Doug Porter, Director of the Health Care Authority said, “Washington State contracts drew national attention since health plans across the country are eyeing the increased enrollment anticipated by Medicaid programs once national healthcare reform raises eligibility standards, effective January 1, 2014.
Washington State’s Beacon Community of Inland Northwest (BCIN) recently released their 2011 Annual Report with a section on the use of technology in BCIN. According to the report, 48 technical assessments were made at clinics, hospitals, and physician offices around the region.
Some of the specific projects included:
• The Enterprise Master Patient Index containing patient demographic information was evaluated. The Index brings the records into one view allowing the clinical staff to see the full continuum of care for the patient
• Developing interface standards to be used by any facility sending any type of data to the data repository regardless of the system
• Being able to send data electronically between BCIN and the information systems at eleven hospitals and physician offices.
• Developing a disease management tool to allow data from the clinical data repository to flow into a patient’s specific algorithm to help care-coordinators determine the best approach to use
• Completing the full implementations of the technology needed at two clinics and two hospitals
• Developing a technical training program with supporting guidebooks to teach clinic staff how to use needed technical tools
BCIN is in the process of creating a report engine to allow for Business Intelligence Reporting, and is also developing a web-based Patient Portal that will enable patients to become more involved in their care and provide information to their caregivers.
A nine member governing board appointed by Governor Gregoire in December will begin to govern the program in March 2012. The Board will oversee ongoing design and development activities and eventually be responsible for the operation of the Exchange. The Board will also provide input on any further legislation needed to move the project forward and also help shape the state’s request for additional federal funding available this year.
The Health Care Authority has also announced that five health plans have been evaluated and are qualified as successful bidders on 2012-2013 contracts that will provide managed care for more than 700,000 Medicaid clients and Basic Health subscribers in the state.
The health plans include Amerigroup, Community Health Plan of Washington, Coordinated Care Corporation, Molina Healthcare of Washington, and UnitedHealthcare Community Plan. Two other health plans that bid on the contracts were Premera and Columbia United Providers. The next step is to finalize the contracts with the successful bidders, a step the Health Care Authority expects to complete by the end of February.
Doug Porter, Director of the Health Care Authority said, “Washington State contracts drew national attention since health plans across the country are eyeing the increased enrollment anticipated by Medicaid programs once national healthcare reform raises eligibility standards, effective January 1, 2014.
Washington State’s Beacon Community of Inland Northwest (BCIN) recently released their 2011 Annual Report with a section on the use of technology in BCIN. According to the report, 48 technical assessments were made at clinics, hospitals, and physician offices around the region.
Some of the specific projects included:
• The Enterprise Master Patient Index containing patient demographic information was evaluated. The Index brings the records into one view allowing the clinical staff to see the full continuum of care for the patient
• Developing interface standards to be used by any facility sending any type of data to the data repository regardless of the system
• Being able to send data electronically between BCIN and the information systems at eleven hospitals and physician offices.
• Developing a disease management tool to allow data from the clinical data repository to flow into a patient’s specific algorithm to help care-coordinators determine the best approach to use
• Completing the full implementations of the technology needed at two clinics and two hospitals
• Developing a technical training program with supporting guidebooks to teach clinic staff how to use needed technical tools
BCIN is in the process of creating a report engine to allow for Business Intelligence Reporting, and is also developing a web-based Patient Portal that will enable patients to become more involved in their care and provide information to their caregivers.
Brain-Controlled Posthetic Arm
A new prosthetic arm operated by a wounded soldier at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) for the first time, enabled the soldier to control the device’s metallic fingers and wrist with his thoughts. The Modular Prosthetic Limb (MPL) was developed as part of a four year research program by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, WRNMMC, and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU).
Col. (Dr.) Paul Pasquina, Chief of Orthopedics and Prosthetics at WRNMMC and Director for the Center of Rehabilitation Sciences at USU explained that the limb is controlled by surface electrodes that pick up electric signals generated by the muscles underneath the skin, and then convert those patterns in electrical signals into a robotic function.
With an amputee, the nerves traveling down the spinal cord are still intact, and they’re still connected to some of the muscles in the arm, said Pasquina. “What we are trying to do is pick up the electrical signals of the muscles that still exist in the arm and then interpret and convert these signals to a computer signal that will then drive a robotic limb. For example, when an individual is thinking about closing their hand, muscles will activate and the prosthetic limb will respond accordingly.”
As Cmdr. Jack Tsao, Director, Traumatic Brain Injury Programs for Navy Medicine’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery explained, before being fitted with the device, amputees must first go through training using the Virtual Integrated Environment (VIE) to record their muscle movements. By collecting the amputees muscle data, the MPL is then individualized for the person using the device.
Engineers are hoping to use electrodes underneath the skin to achieve an electrical signal with much higher fidelity. Researchers are looking to explore other mechanisms to rewire nerves and learn even more about how the body can integrate with computers and computer interface. “The next step in MPL’s development is to incorporate sense of touch and apply this technology to prosthetic legs in the future”, said Tsao.
Col. (Dr.) Paul Pasquina, Chief of Orthopedics and Prosthetics at WRNMMC and Director for the Center of Rehabilitation Sciences at USU explained that the limb is controlled by surface electrodes that pick up electric signals generated by the muscles underneath the skin, and then convert those patterns in electrical signals into a robotic function.
With an amputee, the nerves traveling down the spinal cord are still intact, and they’re still connected to some of the muscles in the arm, said Pasquina. “What we are trying to do is pick up the electrical signals of the muscles that still exist in the arm and then interpret and convert these signals to a computer signal that will then drive a robotic limb. For example, when an individual is thinking about closing their hand, muscles will activate and the prosthetic limb will respond accordingly.”
As Cmdr. Jack Tsao, Director, Traumatic Brain Injury Programs for Navy Medicine’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery explained, before being fitted with the device, amputees must first go through training using the Virtual Integrated Environment (VIE) to record their muscle movements. By collecting the amputees muscle data, the MPL is then individualized for the person using the device.
Engineers are hoping to use electrodes underneath the skin to achieve an electrical signal with much higher fidelity. Researchers are looking to explore other mechanisms to rewire nerves and learn even more about how the body can integrate with computers and computer interface. “The next step in MPL’s development is to incorporate sense of touch and apply this technology to prosthetic legs in the future”, said Tsao.
Navy Seeks Commercial Partner
As reported in FLC Newslink, SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific (SSC Pacific) seeks commercial partners for licensing or collaborative agreements for its rotatable multi-cantilever “Scanning Probe Microscopy” (SPM) head that is able to consolidate several scanning probe tips into a rotating array.
There are over 20 established types of scanning probe microscopes. Currently each microscope requires a separate circuitry box with each one costing $30,000 to $50,000. SSC Pacific has developed a technology that is able to consolidate many circuit boxes into one array that rotates to apply each measurement. Instead of removing a circuit box on the machine and replacing it with another, the user can rotate the scanning probe head and apply the next measurement to the sample.
This technology allows the user to obtain more information about one sample by allowing many different tips to interact with the same measurement site. The system could also save money and materials during production by consolidating circuitry onto one machine.
The growing field SPM is a branch of the field of microscopy and is of benefit to various fields of research operating with microns down to nanometers. SPM has helped advance industries such as solar, data storage, integrated circuits, chemistry, and many medical areas of study like DNA, cell membranes, and bacteria.
For more information, email SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific at ssc_pac_12@navy.mil.
There are over 20 established types of scanning probe microscopes. Currently each microscope requires a separate circuitry box with each one costing $30,000 to $50,000. SSC Pacific has developed a technology that is able to consolidate many circuit boxes into one array that rotates to apply each measurement. Instead of removing a circuit box on the machine and replacing it with another, the user can rotate the scanning probe head and apply the next measurement to the sample.
This technology allows the user to obtain more information about one sample by allowing many different tips to interact with the same measurement site. The system could also save money and materials during production by consolidating circuitry onto one machine.
The growing field SPM is a branch of the field of microscopy and is of benefit to various fields of research operating with microns down to nanometers. SPM has helped advance industries such as solar, data storage, integrated circuits, chemistry, and many medical areas of study like DNA, cell membranes, and bacteria.
For more information, email SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific at ssc_pac_12@navy.mil.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
ATA Highlights Licensing Barriers
The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) hosted a groundbreaking briefing on Capitol Hill to discuss “Physician Licensure Barriers to 21st Century Healthcare”. The briefing initiated by ATA was held to inform Congressional offices, national organizations, and other key stakeholders on the current U.S. state-based licensing systems. According to ATA and other stakeholders, the present licensing system restricts quality modern healthcare.
Opening the event, Bernard Harris Jr. M.D., MBA, President of ATA and President and CEO of Vesalius Ventures said “ATA has been leading the charge in resolving problems associated with state-by-state licensure and regulation of health professionals.” In his career as a medical doctor, Harris had to reply for several separate licenses but all with the same licensing requirements.
Jonathan Linkous, Chief Executive Officer for the American Telemedicine Association, said, “It is time to explore licensure reform nationwide to help increase consumer choice, improve safety, and cut costs for patients across America. What the licensing issue is not about is partisan politics, not about taking state rights away, and not just about telemedicine since licensing is an important issue affecting the entire health and medical community.”
As Linkous pointed out, “The patchwork of state-by-state licensing creates a mire of costly red tape and has become an untenable barrier for both providers and patients. If physicians today want to do telemedical visits with patients in another state, they have to be licensed in both their home state and also in the state where the patient is located.
Also, there is no one model for the way state medical boards approach licensure so it can be very confusing across all 50 states. Resolving this problem will improve patient choice, ensure consumer safety, cut costs, alleviate regional healthcare shortages, and remove barriers to interstate commerce.”
As moderator for the briefing, Susan Dentzer, Editor-In-Chief for Health Affairs a leading peer-reviewed journal is very concerned with the large influx of Medicaid patients anticipated in the future if health reform is in place.
Dealing with children and their heart medical problems, Craig Sable, M.D., Director, Echocardiography and Telemedicine, at Children’s National Medical treats many children remotely in the U.S. but his program also provides remote cardiac services to patients in numerous locations such in Africa.
He reports that heart defects affect 40,000 children a year with 10,000 requiring critical care. It is essential that telemedicine be used so that the doctors at the Children’s National Medical Center can work with doctors in other hospitals. As he commented, he has had problems getting licensed in several states so he could practice telemedicine, but worldwide he is able to set up similar telemedicine programs, cross boundaries, and help children without problems.
Andy Mekelburg, Vice President, Federal Relations, Verizon described the issue from the consumer’s viewpoint. Today, consumers are faced with a boom in apps available to consumers and as a result, their expectations are high in terms of reliability, ease of use, and protection of their privacy.
Verizon has spent billion on the best broadband networks with increased capacity that consumers need and want to use. As he said, “Lack of technology is not a barrier to using telemedicine since the broadband now in place has created the right technological environment so doctors have the capacity to provide telemedicine. However, the present laws and regulations that Verizon and others face are hindering their ability to provide the most effective services possible.”
As a South Dakota resident, Deanna Larson, Vice President for Quality & eCare Initiatives at Avera Health, provides services in multiple states with mostly rural areas requiring multiple state licenses. These multiple licenses are needed as Avera provides e-ICUs, e-pharmacies, and telehealth.
As she explained, “One of the biggest problems that rural areas face is not having enough specialists. There is not enough population in isolated areas to attract specialists that want to work and live in rural communities. As a result, there is the need for residents in these rural and frontier areas to use telemedicine to communicate with specialists in other areas of the country.”
She told the attendees that one of the most formidable problems to getting licensed is to find the 15 to 20 hours needed to fill out the applications as the states won’t accept each other’s forms. Also, after filling out the forms, numerous calls are needed to find out the status of the applications.
Fern Goodhart, Legislative Assistant in the Office of Senator Tom Udall (D-NM), reports that the Senator has been actively exploring issues related to a national physician licensing system to operate with state boards and has plans to issue the legislation in the spring.
Another important need is to have a database operating in real-time with all states having access to information on credentialed telemedicine practitioners. The database would contain claims histories, hospital privileges, and criminal background checks.
To meet the needs of the military, Congressman Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson (R-PA) sponsored the “Servicemembers Telemedicine and E-Health Portability Act” (H.R. 1832) or STEP Act. The passage of this legislation would enable healthcare professionals to provide care crossing state lines, according to the Congressman’s Legislative Assistant Darrell Owns.
For more information, go to www.fixlicensure.org or visit www.americantelemed.org.
Opening the event, Bernard Harris Jr. M.D., MBA, President of ATA and President and CEO of Vesalius Ventures said “ATA has been leading the charge in resolving problems associated with state-by-state licensure and regulation of health professionals.” In his career as a medical doctor, Harris had to reply for several separate licenses but all with the same licensing requirements.
Jonathan Linkous, Chief Executive Officer for the American Telemedicine Association, said, “It is time to explore licensure reform nationwide to help increase consumer choice, improve safety, and cut costs for patients across America. What the licensing issue is not about is partisan politics, not about taking state rights away, and not just about telemedicine since licensing is an important issue affecting the entire health and medical community.”
As Linkous pointed out, “The patchwork of state-by-state licensing creates a mire of costly red tape and has become an untenable barrier for both providers and patients. If physicians today want to do telemedical visits with patients in another state, they have to be licensed in both their home state and also in the state where the patient is located.
Also, there is no one model for the way state medical boards approach licensure so it can be very confusing across all 50 states. Resolving this problem will improve patient choice, ensure consumer safety, cut costs, alleviate regional healthcare shortages, and remove barriers to interstate commerce.”
As moderator for the briefing, Susan Dentzer, Editor-In-Chief for Health Affairs a leading peer-reviewed journal is very concerned with the large influx of Medicaid patients anticipated in the future if health reform is in place.
Dealing with children and their heart medical problems, Craig Sable, M.D., Director, Echocardiography and Telemedicine, at Children’s National Medical treats many children remotely in the U.S. but his program also provides remote cardiac services to patients in numerous locations such in Africa.
He reports that heart defects affect 40,000 children a year with 10,000 requiring critical care. It is essential that telemedicine be used so that the doctors at the Children’s National Medical Center can work with doctors in other hospitals. As he commented, he has had problems getting licensed in several states so he could practice telemedicine, but worldwide he is able to set up similar telemedicine programs, cross boundaries, and help children without problems.
Andy Mekelburg, Vice President, Federal Relations, Verizon described the issue from the consumer’s viewpoint. Today, consumers are faced with a boom in apps available to consumers and as a result, their expectations are high in terms of reliability, ease of use, and protection of their privacy.
Verizon has spent billion on the best broadband networks with increased capacity that consumers need and want to use. As he said, “Lack of technology is not a barrier to using telemedicine since the broadband now in place has created the right technological environment so doctors have the capacity to provide telemedicine. However, the present laws and regulations that Verizon and others face are hindering their ability to provide the most effective services possible.”
As a South Dakota resident, Deanna Larson, Vice President for Quality & eCare Initiatives at Avera Health, provides services in multiple states with mostly rural areas requiring multiple state licenses. These multiple licenses are needed as Avera provides e-ICUs, e-pharmacies, and telehealth.
As she explained, “One of the biggest problems that rural areas face is not having enough specialists. There is not enough population in isolated areas to attract specialists that want to work and live in rural communities. As a result, there is the need for residents in these rural and frontier areas to use telemedicine to communicate with specialists in other areas of the country.”
She told the attendees that one of the most formidable problems to getting licensed is to find the 15 to 20 hours needed to fill out the applications as the states won’t accept each other’s forms. Also, after filling out the forms, numerous calls are needed to find out the status of the applications.
Fern Goodhart, Legislative Assistant in the Office of Senator Tom Udall (D-NM), reports that the Senator has been actively exploring issues related to a national physician licensing system to operate with state boards and has plans to issue the legislation in the spring.
Another important need is to have a database operating in real-time with all states having access to information on credentialed telemedicine practitioners. The database would contain claims histories, hospital privileges, and criminal background checks.
To meet the needs of the military, Congressman Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson (R-PA) sponsored the “Servicemembers Telemedicine and E-Health Portability Act” (H.R. 1832) or STEP Act. The passage of this legislation would enable healthcare professionals to provide care crossing state lines, according to the Congressman’s Legislative Assistant Darrell Owns.
For more information, go to www.fixlicensure.org or visit www.americantelemed.org.
HRSA Announces FOA
HRSA released an FOA on January 27, 2012 soliciting applications for the “Rapid Response to Requests for Rural Data Analysis and Issue Specific Rural Research Studies” Cooperative Agreement (HRSA-12-090). HRSA’s Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP) has to deal with the fact that often rural organizations and policy makers require information that is available only by doing a specialized analysis of databases that have been compiled by CMS, Federal and state agencies, and private organizations.
Most of these databases are available to the public for a fee, but they are also very large and complex. In order to analyze specific components of the data, these databases must often be “scrubbed” or refined by trained data analysts.
Analysis of the data requires statistical programs to be written specifically for each inquiry or study. Most rural groups and individuals do not have the capacity to store the data sets, the staff expertise to refine and analyze the data, nor the computer programs necessary to run statistical analyses.
Plus the ever-changing nature of the rural policy environment often necessitates quick research and analysis of emerging policy issues. Therefore, these studies must be completed within a short time frame requiring a level of effort and staffing greater then what is generally required for typical rural research studies.
The information from the data sets is needed to identify trends, problems, and progress in rural healthcare financing. Rural groups must rely on organizations that have the data storage capacity, personnel, and computer resources to provide the information.
To meet the needs of the solicitation, the award recipient will need to provide the public with a vehicle for performing data analysis and interpretation on rural health services. This includes distributing research findings to inform the public. The awardee will need to determine if conducting the data analyses and interpretations is possible using available data sets, when appropriate complete the analyses, and then share the results with the public.
Secondly, the awardee will need to identify one to two rural policy research issues for a study that in the current timeframe cannot be accommodated by the Rural Health Research Centers and where the study will not duplicate their work.
One of the requirements is that applicants must have significant experience to quickly respond to requests for rural data analysis with turnaround time for the data analyses to be as short as one or two days.
All domestic public and private entities, nonprofits and for-profits are eligible to apply. Public and private institutions for higher education, public or private health research organizations, foundations, tribes, and tribal organizations, and faith-based entities are all encouraged to apply.
The application deadline is March 19, 2012 with projected award data to be September 2012. Funding will be provided during FY 2012-2014 for up to $450,000 and is expected to be available annually to fund one awardee.
For more information go to www.grants.gov or email Michelle Goodman, Policy Coordinator, Office of Rural Health Policy at mgoodman@hrsa.gov.
Most of these databases are available to the public for a fee, but they are also very large and complex. In order to analyze specific components of the data, these databases must often be “scrubbed” or refined by trained data analysts.
Analysis of the data requires statistical programs to be written specifically for each inquiry or study. Most rural groups and individuals do not have the capacity to store the data sets, the staff expertise to refine and analyze the data, nor the computer programs necessary to run statistical analyses.
Plus the ever-changing nature of the rural policy environment often necessitates quick research and analysis of emerging policy issues. Therefore, these studies must be completed within a short time frame requiring a level of effort and staffing greater then what is generally required for typical rural research studies.
The information from the data sets is needed to identify trends, problems, and progress in rural healthcare financing. Rural groups must rely on organizations that have the data storage capacity, personnel, and computer resources to provide the information.
To meet the needs of the solicitation, the award recipient will need to provide the public with a vehicle for performing data analysis and interpretation on rural health services. This includes distributing research findings to inform the public. The awardee will need to determine if conducting the data analyses and interpretations is possible using available data sets, when appropriate complete the analyses, and then share the results with the public.
Secondly, the awardee will need to identify one to two rural policy research issues for a study that in the current timeframe cannot be accommodated by the Rural Health Research Centers and where the study will not duplicate their work.
One of the requirements is that applicants must have significant experience to quickly respond to requests for rural data analysis with turnaround time for the data analyses to be as short as one or two days.
All domestic public and private entities, nonprofits and for-profits are eligible to apply. Public and private institutions for higher education, public or private health research organizations, foundations, tribes, and tribal organizations, and faith-based entities are all encouraged to apply.
The application deadline is March 19, 2012 with projected award data to be September 2012. Funding will be provided during FY 2012-2014 for up to $450,000 and is expected to be available annually to fund one awardee.
For more information go to www.grants.gov or email Michelle Goodman, Policy Coordinator, Office of Rural Health Policy at mgoodman@hrsa.gov.
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