Health Care Practice: Priorities/Process/Problem-Solving

American Medical Directors Assoc Fdn, Columbia MD

Investigators

Abstract

The AMDA Foundation's research development and dissemination conference, "Translating Research into Practice", Priorities, Process, and Problem Solving, will address long term care research issues and disseminate research conducted by the Foundation LTC Research Network, a PBRN of 300 long term care professionals launched in 2001. The Nov. 11-13, 2005 conference has several goals: (1) Setting research priorities through the development of a long-term care panel with the Family Physician Inquiries Network, a web based interactive approach of identifying and prioritizing clinical questions. (2) Discussion of clinical, ethical operational issues involved in obtaining consent and assent in research projects involving cognitively impaired nursing home residents. (3) Identifying and solving typical problems encountered in LTC research such as recruitment, rigid exclusion/inclusion criteria and data collection issues. (4) Dissemination of initial data from the AHRQ LTC Quality Improvement Partnerships, a 50 facility pilot study assessing process and outcome measures from implementing AMDA pain and pressure ulcer clinical practice guidelines. (5) Dissemination of data from research network studies on physician and nursing attitudes and practice patterns regarding treatment and management of common clinical conditions such as anemia and digestive disorders, and a hospital to nursing home transfer documentation study. (6) Provide Network member research training and skill building in the areas of informed consent, instrument design, development of inclusion/ exclusion criteria, and conducting literature searches. Relevance: The purpose of this research and dissemination conference is to help improve the quality of care and quality of life for the more than 2 million seniors who spend at least some time in a nursing home each year. The Research Network seeks to identify best practices for caring for our nation's elderly through analyzing current practice patterns and their impact on health outcomes and resident quality of life, and developing and implementing studies to assess the effectiveness of current and new interventions.