Overview[]
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) (formerly the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR)) is the lead Federal agency charged with improving the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care. Its research focuses on research into state-of-the-art IT for use in health care applications such as computer-based patient records, clinical decision support systems, and standards for patient care data, information access, and telehealth.
AHRQ's Health IT Portfolio has supported health services research grants and contracts that create new knowledge, synthesize and disseminate best evidence and provide tools for implementation addressing health IT's impact on the quality of health care since 2004. Current initiatives address clinical decision support, patient safety, patient centered care, quality measurement, and usability and workflow issues.