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Overcoming Challenges to Evidence-Based Policy Development in a Large, Integrated Delivery System.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE:To describe a new Veterans Health Administration (VHA) program to foster the learning health system paradigm by rigorously evaluating health care initiatives and to report key lessons learned in designing those evaluations. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:The VHA's Quality Enhancement Research Initiative and its Health Services Research and Development Service are cooperating on several large, randomized program evaluations aimed at improving the care veterans receive and the efficiency with which it is delivered. The evaluations we describe involve collaborative design, outcomes assessment, and implementation science through partnerships between VHA operations and researchers. We review key factors to assess before committing to an evaluation. In addition to traditional design issues (such as ensuring adequate power and availability of data), these include others that are easily overlooked: the stability of intervention financing, means of controlling and commitment to adhering to randomized roll-out, degree of buy-in from key implementation staff, and feasibility of managing multiple veto points for interventions that span several programs, among others. CONCLUSIONS:Successful program implementation and rigorous evaluation require resources, specialized expertise, and careful planning. If the learning health system model is to be sustained, organizations will need dedicated programs to prioritize resources and continuously adapt evaluation designs.

SUBMITTER: Frakt AB

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6232400 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Overcoming Challenges to Evidence-Based Policy Development in a Large, Integrated Delivery System.

Frakt Austin B AB Prentice Julia C JC Pizer Steven D SD Elwy A Rani AR Garrido Melissa M MM Kilbourne Amy M AM Atkins David D

Health services research 20180603 6

<h4>Objective</h4>To describe a new Veterans Health Administration (VHA) program to foster the learning health system paradigm by rigorously evaluating health care initiatives and to report key lessons learned in designing those evaluations.<h4>Principal findings</h4>The VHA's Quality Enhancement Research Initiative and its Health Services Research and Development Service are cooperating on several large, randomized program evaluations aimed at improving the care veterans receive and the efficie ...[more]

PMID: 29862494

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Project description:BackgroundSurveillance of ectopic pregnancy (EP) using electronic databases is important. To our knowledge, no published study has assessed the validity of EP case ascertainment using electronic health records.ObjectiveWe aimed to assess the validity of an enhanced version of a previously validated algorithm, which used a combination of encounters with EP-related diagnostic/procedure codes and methotrexate injections.MethodsMedical records of 500 women aged 15-44 years with membership at Kaiser Permanente Southern and Northern California between 2009 and 2018 and a potential EP were randomly selected for chart review, and true cases were identified. The enhanced algorithm included diagnostic/procedure codes from the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, used telephone appointment visits, and excluded cases with only abdominal EP diagnosis codes. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and overall performance (Youden index and F-score) of the algorithm were evaluated and compared to the validated algorithm.ResultsThere were 334 true positive and 166 true negative EP cases with available records. True positive and true negative EP cases did not differ significantly according to maternal age, race/ethnicity, and smoking status. EP cases with only one encounter and non-tubal EPs were more likely to be misclassified. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV of the enhanced algorithm for EP were 97.6%, 84.9%, 92.9%, and 94.6%, respectively. The Youden index and F-score were 82.5% and 95.2%, respectively. The sensitivity and NPV were lower for the previously published algorithm at 94.3% and 88.1%, respectively. The sensitivity of surgical procedure codes from electronic chart abstraction to correctly identify surgical management was 91.9%. The overall accuracy, defined as the percentage of EP cases with correct management (surgical, medical, and unclassified) identified by electronic chart abstraction, was 92.3%.ConclusionsThe performance of the enhanced algorithm for EP case ascertainment in integrated health care databases is adequate to allow for use in future epidemiological studies. Use of this algorithm will likely result in better capture of true EP cases than the previously validated algorithm.

Project description:BackgroundIntegrated early childhood development (IECD) is a comprehensive approach to optimal development of children in different developmental domains from fetal stage to eight years of age. The aim of this study was to identify the factors affecting the process of policy-making for early childhood development and to clarify how these factors affect decision-making and create challenges in this regard.MethodIn a qualitative study, we used two main data sources including document analyses and interviews. Using purposive sampling, forty semi-structured interviews with policymakers and informants in the fields related to children were conducted in Tehran from October 2017 to June 2018. Also, 62 national and 10 international relevant documents were reviewed. A deductive-inductive approach was used to analyze the data. We used the MAXQDA11 software for data management.Resultswe identified 13 themes and 29 subthemes related to the stages of policymaking process including: Agenda setting (problem stream, policy stream, politics stream), Policy formulation (formulation and approval process, policy sustainability, mechanisms of stakeholders' participation in policymaking), Policy implementation (conceptual ambiguity, intersectoral and trans-sectoral issues, structural capacities, mobilization of resources), and Policy evaluation (continuous and routine data registry system, comprehensiveness of indexes). We propose 19 policy recommendations to improve the situation.ConclusionAs a multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral field with different domains, early childhood development (ECD) requires a more active role on the part of policymakers in governmental levels in supporting the related policies. Unless policymakers change their approach to decrease nonintegrated and non-comprehensive policymaking for ECD, child development will be compromised, which endangers the eventual sustainability of the society since improved IECD policy-making process improves developmental outcomes in children. In this regard, attention should be paid to the role of reinforcing intersectoral collaboration through incorporating it in the missions and the evaluation items of organizations, creating commitment in high organizational levels, and developing an inter-ministerial policymaking framework that clearly specifies the roles and responsibilities of every single sector and their interactions and collaborations.

Dataset Information

Overcoming Challenges to Evidence-Based Policy Development in a Large, Integrated Delivery System.

Publications

Overcoming Challenges to Evidence-Based Policy Development in a Large, Integrated Delivery System.

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