Future Directions in Primary Care Research

Primary Care

A number of research projects related to primary care nursing issues are supported by CPCR, the only one of the AHRQ's six centers and four offices that focuses on understanding the quality effectiveness, cost, and outcomes of primary care; other types of nursing research are considered by the Agency's remaining centers. CPCR investigates issues surrounding:

• Patient-provider communication.


• The relationship between medical generalists and specialists.


• The health care workforce.


• Access to care, including racial and ethnic disparities.


• All of these are issues of strong interest to the nursing community.

The center is also playing a lead role within AHRQ on initiatives concerning ambulatory patient safety. In cooperation with the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), AHRQ has begun working toward understanding patient safety and medical errors in the outpatient setting.

A recent conference sponsored by AHRQ and HCFA addressed the epidemiology of medical errors in the ambulatory setting and began to develop a research agenda and demonstration programs to address this issue. In particular, researchers need to understand how primary care providers can help to reduce the high-risk errors, such as medication errors and missed followup of laboratory and radiology tests.

CPCR has been designated as the lead for the Agency on clinical informatics. As part of our reauthorization, AHRQ was directed to support the use of information technology (IT) to improve patient coordination, quality of care, and patient outcomes. AHRQ's unique role in IT will focus primarily on those applications that can improve care and patient safety. An upcoming grant solicitation will support work in this area.