Attachment C -- Advance Letter

Dear [Dr. /Mr. /Ms.] [lastname]:

We need your help to better identify and communicate the value of research on healthcare costs, productivity, organization, and market forces and also to determine how best to strengthen efforts to support such research in the future.

You are one of more than 100 principal investigators who have received support from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to conduct research in these areas since 1998. AHRQ has contracted with Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. (MPR) to conduct a survey of principal investigators on these research projects. MPR’s survey will collect information about research findings generated through AHRQ-supported grant(s) and how they can be accessed. We seek your help in providing information on key findings, publications, and perceived impacts resulting from the research undertaken with AHRQ’s support. The survey also will ask for your feedback on AHRQ’s processes and support for this kind of research.

In the next week, MPR will e-mail you a web-link to the survey. Your participation in this study will assist AHRQ in its mission of supporting the synthesis and dissemination of available scientific evidence for use by patients, consumers, practitioners, providers, purchasers, policymakers, and educators. The survey will help AHRQ better aggregate information so that it is available to the field and to private and public policy decision-makers.

Your feedback on AHRQ’s performance and your perceptions of other potential funders of research will be kept absolutely confidential and will only be shared with AHRQ in summary form. To support the study’s objectives, information you provide on publications and outcomes of grants may be reported publicly.

If you have any questions about the survey, please call Tara Krissik at 202-484-9220.

Sincerely,

Michael Hagan

Senior Economist, Center for Delivery, Organization, and Markets

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services