Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality February 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Director Dr. Carolyn Clancy and Office for Civil Rights Deputy Director of Health Information Privacy Susan McAndrew will host a joint audio conference February 29, 2008 from 2-3 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) to discuss the recently published proposed regulation regarding Patient Safety and Quality Improvement and statutory confidentiality protections. The purpose of this audio conference is to facilitate public understanding of the proposed regulation and rulemaking process outlined in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking published in the Federal Register February 12, 2008. To register for the audio conference, log on to https:// www.academyhealth.org/ahrq/psoaudio/.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) invites individuals and organizations to nominate primary and secondary prevention topics pertaining to clinical preventive services that they would like the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) to consider for review. All topics previously reviewed by the USPSTF are available on AHRQ's Web site, https://www.preventiveservices.ahrq.gov. The USPSTF is an independent panel of experts that makes evidence- based recommendations regarding the provision of clinical preventive services. Clinical preventive services include screening, counseling and preventive medications associated with primary care. The USPSTF makes recommendations about preventive services for asymptomatic peoplepeople without recognized signs or symptoms of the specific conditions targeted by the preventive service. Topics can be nominated by individuals, organizations, evidence- based practice centers (EPC) and USPSTF members. The USPSTF will consider nominations in two steps. The USPSTF will first determine if the service is eligible, i.e., constitutes primary or secondary prevention applicable to healthy asymptomatic persons; is primary care feasible or referable from primary care; and addresses a condition with a substantial health burden. As a second step, within eligible topics, the USPSTF will prioritize based on the following set of criteria: public health importance (burden of suffering, potential of preventive service to reduce the burden); and potential for greatest Task Force impact (e.g., clinical controversy, practice does not reflect evidence, inappropriate timing in delivery of services).

This notice announces the intention of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to request that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approve the proposed information collection project: ``Improving Quality through Health IT: Testing the Feasibility and Assessing the Impact of Using Existing Health IT Infrastructure for Better Care Delivery.'' In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A), AHRQ invites the public to comment on this proposed information collection.