Expanding national and local analyses of differences in health care quality using the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care

Over the past 15 years, the Dartmouth Atlas Project (DAP) has documented extensive variations in practice and spending, explored the causes and consequences of these variations and developed recommendations to guide both policy reforms and improvements in clinical practice. The goal of this renewal support would be to extend DAP along two dimensions: (1) to broaden national analyses, reporting and stakeholder engagement through the implementation of additional provider-specific measures and more frequent Atlas updates; and (2) to support the successful implementation of local quality improvement and policy reform initiatives by providing data, analysis and Atlas staff support for RWJF's Regional Quality Strategy (RQS). These complementary goals will be achieved by focusing on six aims: (1) the development of new measures for inclusion in Atlas reports and web-based feedback, including new provider-specific measures of quality, costs and racial and ethnic disparities; (2) continued enhancements to data management and programming to support routine nationwide updating and reporting of Atlas measures; (3) preparation and publication of Atlas reports and peer-reviewed journal articles; (4) continued engagement with policy-makers, major stakeholders, and the general public through enhanced access to web-based data and materials in collaboration with RWJF; (5) provision of data to other investigators to support policy-relevant research and reporting; and (6) direct support for RWJF-initiated local quality improvement initiatives and their evaluation.

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Grant Details

Amount Awarded $4,250,000.00

Awarded on: 8/22/2007

Time frame: 9/1/2007 - 2/28/2011

Grant Number: 59491