September 7, 2001

Dear Chairman Regula and Congressman Obey:

The Friends of AHRQ thank you for your support for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). We are asking for your continued leadership on behalf of the Agency as you put together the FY2002 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill. The Friends of AHRQ are asking that AHRQ receive $400 million for FY02. This level of funding is needed to enable AHRQ to:

• Expand investigator-initiated grants. In its final conference report for FY2001, the appropriations conferees urged AHRQ to enhance its investigator-initiated research funding. In order to achieve this goal, the Friends support an appropriation of $60 million to fund new investigator-initiated grants. These grants are needed to provide research into critical areas of study such as: efforts to control rising costs, quality, racial and ethnic health disparities, disease management, utilization, site of care changes over time, effects of technological change, and expenditure differentials by health status among different age-gender groups. It is noteworthy that the landmark Institute of Medicine (IOM) study, To Err is Human was based on investigator-initiated research funded in the early 1990's by AHRQ's predecessor agency.
  
  
• Provide leadership in improving patient safety and reducing medical errors. The impact of medical errors on patient health was well established by the recent report from the IOM, which estimated as many as 44,000 to 98,000 people die each year because of medical errors. AHRQ research has demonstrated that many errors are the result of system failures.
  
  For FY2001, Congress appropriated $50 million to, among other items, support the development of guidance on the collection of uniform data related to patient safety; establish a competitive demonstration program for health care facilities to determine the causes of medical errors; and accelerate AHRQ's commitment to the Centers for Education and Research in Therapeutics.
  
  The Friends support providing an additional $50 million to enable the Agency to take the other needed steps outlined in the IOM report to prevent medical errors.
  
• Begin fulfilling the research needs expressed in the IOM report: Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century. The IOM calls on Congress to establish a $1 billion innovation fund to facilitate the translation of research into clinical practice. In addition to the IOM report, Translating Research into Practice (TRIP) studies show that fewer than half of Americans are getting high quality care for major health problems. This includes individuals suffering from heart disease, stroke, diabetes, asthma, depression, and schizophrenia.
  
• Meet consumer, employer and provider demand for better information on health care quality and outcomes. AHRQ serves as a resource to consumers, employers, providers, and policymakers in making health care decisions. Currently the agency relies primarily upon public and private partners and its web site to disseminate this critical information.

The need to improve our health care system and the concomitant need for health services research information cannot and will not be effectively met without your continued support of AHRQ. With your support of AHRQ, millions of Americans will no longer undergo unneeded or inappropriate medical care, or suffer from preventable medical errors.

Sincerely,

Administrators of Internal Medicine
Ambulatory Pediatric Association
American Academy of Family Physicians
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Academy of Physician Assistants
American Association for Dental Research
American Association of Health Plans
American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine
American College of Preventive Medicine
American College of Rheumatology
American Federation for Medical Research
American Geriatrics Society
American Heart Association
American Pediatric Society
American Public Health Association
Association of Academic Health Centers
Association of American Medical Colleges
Association of Departments of Family Medicine
Association of Family Practice Residency Directors
Association of Medical School Pediatric Chairs
Association of Professors of Medicine
Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine
Association of Schools of Public Health
Association of Subspecialty Professors
Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine
Coalition for Health Services Research
Kaiser Permanente
Medical Group Management Association
National Association of Children's Hospitals
National Health Council
North American Primary Care Research Group
Society for Pediatric Research
Society for Women's Health Research
Society of General Internal Medicine
Society of Teachers of Family Medicine