Researchers at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine have been awarded $2.4 million in federal funding to support ongoing studies aimed at enhancing American healthcare providers’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Announced by New Hampshire’s congressional delegation, the research funding comes from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, and was awarded through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
The funds will allow researchers at Geisel’s Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice to study the adoption of new healthcare delivery methods, such as telehealth services, and to examine the different ways that the pandemic has impacted healthcare providers and their patients.
“We know from past crises that disruption in healthcare can have long-lasting health consequences,” says Ellen Meara, PhD, an adjunct professor of The Dartmouth Institute and lead investigator on the grant. “With this funding, we can build on Dartmouth's ongoing study of health system performance to learn what features of healthcare organizations, and the communities in which they operate, may have helped or hindered healthcare organizations to adapt quickly to serve patients during this pandemic.”
The data obtained from this research will be used to establish guidance that will help healthcare providers and lawmakers strengthen the delivery of primary and patient care, not only during this current pandemic but for those that may emerge in the future.
“This funding provides an extraordinary opportunity to learn about pandemic-induced innovations in care delivery that could have a lasting impact on how care is delivered well beyond the pandemic, especially for the most vulnerable populations,” says Anna Tosteson, ScD, a professor and interim director of The Dartmouth Institute. “Telehealth, in particular, is an area of intense interest where research made possible by this award could inform future legislation and regulations.”
The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice is a world leader in studying and advancing models for disruptive change in healthcare delivery. The work of Dartmouth Institute faculty and researchers includes developing the concept of shared decision-making between patients and healthcare professionals, creating the model for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), and introducing the game-changing concept that more healthcare is not necessarily better care.
