MedStar Health Awarded Additional $2 Million Grant to Expand Research on National Telehealth Access, Safety, and Health Equity
Summary
The grant will allow researchers to establish a patient safety learning laboratory over a four-year funding period to apply a cross-disciplinary, human factors and systems engineering approach to connected care enhancements, especially among patients with chronic conditions and other vulnerable populations.This award comes after npj Digital Medicines recent publication of the teams study, "The impact of expanded telehealth availability on primary care utilization," which resulted from research conducted under the initial grant award. "For the teams new study in npj Digital Medicine, researchers analyzed more than 4.1 million completed in-person and telehealth (video or phone) adult primary care encounters for nearly 940,000 unique patients at MedStar Health, Stanford Health Care, and Intermountain Healthcare from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2021, as well as each patients payor type (commercial, Medicaid, Medicare, and other). "Through the new grant, the team will continue work under the name Connected CARECare Access, Research, Equity& Safety Consortium and expand beyond their initial focus on primary care. For more information about these efforts, research partners, and principal investigators representing each organization, visit www.ConnectedCAREandSafety.org.At MedStar Health, we use the best of our minds and the best of our hearts to serve our patients, those who care for them, and our communities. Our 30,000 associates and 4,700 affiliated physicians are committed to living this promise through our core SPIRIT valuesService, Patient first, Integrity, Respect, Innovation, and Teamworkacross our more than 300 locations including 10 hospitals, ambulatory, and urgent care centers.