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AHRQ Improving Patient Safety Through Simulation Research
In 2006, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) awarded more than $5 million for 19 new grants under its Improving Patient Safety Through Simulation Research portfolio. The 19 projects focus on assessing and evaluating the roles that simulation can play to improve the safe delivery of quality health care. Simulation provides a safe environment for health care practitioners, teams, and systems to improve the safety of health care without placing patients at risk. These projects will inform providers, health educators, payers, policy makers, patients, and the public about the effective use of simulation in improving patient safety.
Projects Descriptions
Evaluation of the System for Teamwork Effectiveness and Patient Safety
Principal Investigator: Shelia Chauvin, MEd, PhD
Description: This project implements an interdisciplinary simulation-based training designed to improve teamwork and patient safety in operating room environments including a mobile strategy that brings training to clinicians in their work settings.
Applicant Institution: Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center; New Orleans, LA
Grant No.: HS016680-01
Year 1 Funding: $ 263,890
Simulation Training for Ultrasound Guided Central Venous Catheter (CVC) Insertion
Principal Investigator: Leigh Evans, MD
escription: This project focuses on evaluating the efficacy of a structured simulation training protocol using ultrasound-guided CVC insertion for resident physicians.
pplicant Institution: Yale University; New Haven, CT
Grant No.: HS016725-01
Year 1 Funding: $ 298,444
Preparing Rural and Urban Hospitals to Improve Safety Culture through Simulation
Principal Investigator: David Gaba, MD
Description: Working with multidisciplinary teams from high-hazard units, such as emergency departments and intensive care units, this project focuses on implementing simulation training to improve the safety culture in rural and urban hospitals.
Applicant Institution: Stanford University; Stanford, CA
Grant No.: HS016630-01
Year 1 Funding: $ 277,305
Using Team Simulation to Improve Error Disclosure to Patients and Safety Culture
Principal Investigator: Thomas Gallagher, MD
Description: This project implements simulation training focused on team-communication and patient disclosure that targets physicians and nurses from diverse practice settings in hospitals and a health maintenance organization.
Applicant Institution: University of Washington; Seattle, WA
Grant No.: HS016658-01
Year 1 Funding: $ 299,249
Reducing Errors in the Diagnosis of Melanoma using an Intelligent Tutoring System
Principal Investigator: Dana Grzybicki, MD, PhD
Description: This project aims to improve the diagnostic accuracy of community generalist pathologists in the identification of malignant melanoma through the use of a cognitive simulation system.
Applicant Institution: University of Pittsburgh; Pittsburgh, PA
Grant No.: HS016657-01
Year 1 Funding: $ 276,029
Evaluating the Clinical Impact of Simulation and Team Training on Obstetric Safety
Principal Investigator: Jeanne-Marie Guise, MD, MPH
Description: This project examines the use of a standardized training curriculum for simulated obstetric emergencies and crew resource management for multidisciplinary teams in rural hospital settings which also includes patient perspectives on obstetric safety issues.
Applicant Institution: Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR
Grant No.: HS016673-01
Year 1 Funding: $ 299,999
Emergency Department Simulation for Research and Training in Health Care Information Technology
Principal Investigator: Li Lin, PhD
Description: This project uses simulation-based training on patient tracking systems in emergency departments and focuses on designing a safe transition from physical systems to electronic medical record-based tracking systems.
Applicant Institution: University at Buffalo - The State University of New York; Buffalo, NY
Grant No.: HS016672-01
Year 1 Funding: $ 295,274
Simulation Training for Acute Coronary Syndrome Management for Rural Providers
Principal Investigator: John Messenger, MD
Description: To improve safety for high-risk cardiac patients, this project implements simulated "case-scenario" training aimed at the recognition and management of acute myocardial infarction patients presenting to rural providers and hospital teams. Applicant Institution: University of Colorado Denver & Health Sciences Center; Denver CO
Grant No.: HS016682-01
Year 1 Funding: $ 189,896
Clinical Decision Support Simulations for Medication Administration Safety
Principal Investigator: Jacqueline Moss, PhD, RN
Description: This project focuses on improving safe medication administration by providing nurses with tools to conduct simulations for the design of computerized decision support tools and electronic medical records.
Applicant Institution: University of Alabama - Birmingham; Birmingham, AL
Grant No.: HS016660-01
Year 1 Funding: $ 221,623
Acute Care Management Skills: An Assessment Program for Graduate Physicians
Principal Investigator: David Murray, MD
Description: This project implements simulation training for medical students and interns on 15 acute care events in order to assess their competency and communication skills with health care teams and nurses.
Applicant Institution: Washington University School of Medicine; St. Louis, MO
Grant No.: HS016652-01
Year 1 Funding: $ 214,130
Improving Patient Safety with Just-in-Time Pediatric Simulation Training
Principal Investigator: Vinay Nadkarni, MD
Description: This project focuses on "just-in-time" simulation overtraining for individuals and multidisciplinary teams during pediatric airway management.
Applicant Institution: The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; Philadelphia, PA
Grant No.: HS016678-01
Year 1 Funding: $ 294,003
In Situ Teamwork Training and Detection of Safety Threats in High Risk Settings
Principal Investigator: Mary Patterson, MD, MEd Description: In this project, all health care providers participate in critical teamwork simulations to validate simulation as a method to detect latent safety threats and to embed teamwork training in the emergency department of a pediatric hospital.
Applicant Institution: Cincinnati Children's Hospital and Medical Center; Cincinnati, OH
Grant No.: HS016615-01
Year 1 Funding: $ 294,521
Improving Resuscitation Team Response to Inpatient Critical Events by Simulation
Principal Investigator: Jose Pliego, MD
Description: This project implements a teamwork training curriculum which uses high-fidelity simulations to train multidisciplinary rapid response teams in communication to improve safety in a rural tertiary care hospital.
Applicant Institution: Scott and White Hospital; Temple, TX
Grant No.: HS016634-01
Year 1 Funding: $ 300,000
In Situ Simulation to Detect and Prevent Near Misses During Critical Events
Principal Investigator: William Riley, MD
Description: To improve patient safety for women and children, this interdisciplinary teamwork project uses a high-fidelity simulation strategy in perinatal units to identify "near misses" for emergent C-sections based on emergencies abstracted from real sentinel events.
Applicant Institution: University of Minnesota; Minneapolis, MN
Grant No.: HS016728-01
Year 1 Funding: $ 248,677
Evaluating the Impact of Simulated Team Training on Patient Safety
Principal Investigator: Daniel Scott, MD Description: To improve the safety of high-volume surgeries, this project evaluates the role of team training using bench model simulations, focused team training learning sessions, and real-life simulations in a virtual operating room that will facilitate the transfer of trained skills from a simulation environment to the work environment.
Applicant Institution: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center; Dallas, TX
Grant No.: HS016667-01
Year 1 Funding: $ 299,938
Immersive Simulation Team Training Impact on Rescue, Recovery, and Safety Culture
Principal Investigator: Stephen Small, MD
Description: Through involvement of diverse team members, this project focuses on immersive simulation-based team training with video feedback for interdisciplinary rapid response teams and includes standardized patient and family members at an urban hospital.
Applicant Institution: University of Chicago; Chicago, IL
Grant No.: HS016664-01
Year 1 Funding: $ 248,497
Virtual Health Care Environments Versus Traditional Interactive Team Training
Principal Investigator: Jeffrey Taekman, MD
Description: This project compares a three-dimensional network virtual reality simulation with interactive team training to demonstrate how high-technology simulations can contribute to teaching safe behaviors.
Applicant Institution: Duke University; Durham, NC
Grant No.: HS016653-01
Year 1 Funding: $ 169,873
Simulation-Based Training Program to Augment Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Based Hand-off Tool
Principal Investigator: John Vozenilek, MD
Description: This project seeks to reduce communication errors during patient hand-offs in the emergency department by implementing a patient-specific checklist based on an electronic medical record, and by testing the effect of companion simulation-based training.
Applicant Institution: Evanston Northwestern Healthcare; Evanston, IL
Grant No.: HS016640-01
Year 1 Funding: $ 285,099
Simulation Training for Rapid Assessment and Improved Teamwork
Principal Investigator: Matthew Weinger, MD
Description: This project focuses on using simulation to evaluate and improve safe communication and coordination between anesthesia providers and nurses during care transitions and hand-offs between the operating room and the post-anesthesia care unit.
Applicant Institution:
Grant No.: HS016651-01
Year 1 Funding: $295,873