What's New
Announcement
Posted on 12.22.04
AHRQ Plans Additional CERTs Centers for 2005
By Martha C. Rundles
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) recently announced the availability of funds for awards to new Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics (CERTs) RFA-HS-05-014. The new centers will focus on the following research areas: 1) medical devices; 2) mental health; 3) consumer and patient education; and 4) the elderly.
The purpose of the new centers is to: (a) develop and implement research and create educational strategies for translating research findings into improved clinical practices; (b) address any existing gaps within the CERTs program; and (c) address therapeutic themes determined to be complementary to AHRQ and Food and Drug Administration research priorities and to be responsive to the needs and goals of the programs of the Department of Health and Human Services.
For additional information, including deadlines and a list of the types of institutions eligible to apply, a request for application (RFA) is available online. Please refer to: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-HS-05-014.html.
Currently the CERTs are comprised of seven research centers and a coordinating center. Each center focuses its educational and research efforts on therapies in a particular population or therapeutic area:
- Duke University Medical Center—Therapies for disorders of the heart and blood vessels
- HMO Research Network—Drug use, safety and effectiveness in HMO populations
- University of Alabama at Birmingham—Therapies for musculoskeletal disorders
- University of Arizona Health Sciences Center—Drug interactions that result in harm to women
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill—Therapies for children
- University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine—Therapies for infection; antibiotic drug resistance
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center—Prescription drug use in a Medicaid population
For more information, visit the AHRQ Web site, at www.ahrq.gov, or contact the CERTs Coordinating Center, at info@ahrq.gov.