WASHINGTON, DC—AARP announced today that Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA) and Tufts Medical Center are this year’s AARP Quality Measures Innovation Grant award winners. They will each receive a grant of $150,000 and will have access to OptumLabs’ unique data assets to develop innovative quality health measures that address important gaps in diabetes and cancer care.

AARP, in collaboration with OptumLabs, began the Quality Measures Innovation Grant program in 2016 to sponsor projects aimed at developing and/or testing novel health quality measures to improve patient care. Working together with the National Quality Forum (NQF) Measure Incubator™, AARP’s grant will support efforts to improve the lives of older Americans.

About this year’s award winners:

Pharmacy Quality Alliance – Diabetes Measure
PQA, in collaboration with the University of Maryland, proposed a patient safety and outcome measure for treating people with diabetes. They propose to measure the frequency of hospital and/or emergency room visits due to misuse of anti-hyperglycemic medications among patients with diabetes. This is an important measure for older adults and for AARP because of the high prevalence of diabetes among mid-life and older adults; and because hypoglycemia (or low-blood sugar) is a major source of adverse drug events among diabetes patients.

Tufts Medical Center – Cancer Measure
Tufts Medical Center, in collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, proposed a patient safety measure for treating cancer patients. This measure aims to reduce medical errors and care-related injuries among cancer patients, particularly high-risk and vulnerable people. The proposal will identify a group of “trigger” events (e.g., use of an antidote medication, abnormal lab or medical results, changes in the level of care) in the electronic medical record that indicate potential adverse events or medical errors.

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About AARP
AARP is the nation’s largest non-profit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering Americans 50 and older to choose how they live as they age. With nearly 38 million members and offices in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, AARP works to strengthen communities and advocate for what matters most to families with a focus on health security, financial stability and personal fulfillment. AARP also works for individuals in the marketplace by sparking new solutions and allowing carefully chosen, high-quality products and services to carry the AARP name.  As a trusted source for news and information, AARP produces the world’s largest circulation publications, AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin. To learn more, visit www.aarp.org or follow @AARP and @AARPadvocates on social media.

About OptumLabs®
OptumLabs® is an open, collaborative research and innovation center, dedicated to improving patient care and patient value through data-driven health care research, leading-edge data science and strong partner collaboration.

About National Quality Forum
National Quality Forum is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan, membership-based organization that works to catalyze improvements in healthcare. NQF is advancing the field of measurement science with an expanding portfolio of work that is clearing the way for next-generation measures that the rapidly evolving health system demands.

About NQF Measure Incubator™
NQF’s Measure Incubator™ facilitates measure development and testing more efficiently through collaboration and partnership. It is designed to address important gaps where quality measures are underdeveloped or non-existent by facilitating an improved measure development process.