Overview

The Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ) is 1 of 12 agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Its mission is to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans. The Agency fulfills this mission by conducting health care services research which examines how people get access to health care, how much care costs, and what happens as a result of the care they receive. The principal goals of health services research are to identify the most effective ways to organize manage, finance, and deliver high quality care, reduce medical errors, and improve patient safety. AHRQ pursues its mission through six research portfolios: Patient-Centered Health Research: improves health care quality by providing patients and physicians with state-of-the-science information on which medical treatments work best for a given condition; Prevention/Care Management Research: focuses on improving the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of the delivery of evidence-based preventive services and chronic care management in ambulatory care settings; Value Research: focuses on finding a way to achieve greater value in health care - reducing unnecessary costs and waste while maintaining or improving quality; Health Information Technology: Health IT research develops and disseminates evidence and evidence-based tools to inform policy and practice on how Health IT can improve the quality of American health care; Patient Safety: identifies risks and hazards that lead to medical errors and finding ways to prevent patient injury associated with delivery of health care; Crosscutting Activities Related to Quality, Effectiveness and Efficiency: includes investigator-initiated and targeted research grants and contracts that focus on health services research in the areas of quality, effectiveness, and efficiency. Crosscutting Activities also includes additional research activities that support all of our research portfolios including data collection, measurement, dissemination and translation, and program evaluation. In addition to AHRQ's six research portfolios, the Agency supports the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), which is the only national source for annual data on how Americans use and pay for medical care. MEPS supports all of AHRQ's research related strategic goal areas. AHRQ's vision is that, as a result of its efforts, American health care will provide services of the highest quality, with the best possible outcomes, at the lowest cost. This report represents the Agency's key accomplishments, initiatives, and research findings during fiscal year 2012 (FY12) that have brought us closer to making this vision a reality.

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