RESEARCH and MEASURES


Patients for Patient Safety US (PFPS   US) actively collaborates with leading institutions and national initiatives to enhance research and measure development aimed at improving diagnostic safety and reducing preventable harm. Our partnerships include

Research

Achieving Better Cancer Diagnosis

AHRQ Project summary Our Diagnostic Center of Excellence (DCE) will focus on detecting, in real time, patients with delayed diagnosis of cancer, especially among marginalized patients, and then learning deeply from them about what went wrong, how delays could be avoided, and strategies to mitigate any harm that has occurred. This DCE will integrate extensive expertise on safety science, diagnosis improvement, and Communication and Resolution Programs (initiatives to detect and empathically respond to harm events). These insights from patients who have experienced delayed cancer diagnosis about what happened and how we can improve are at present largely missing, but are essential if meaningful reductions in delayed diagnoses are to occur.

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Safety-II Together

Ambulatory diagnostic error is a vexing problem because events unfold across time with shifting team members, and accurate and timely diagnosis relies on keeping patients and health care professionals (HCPs) on the same page, both in and between clinic visits. Yet little is known about how patients and HCPs develop and sustain a shared mental model of the diagnostic process. We will identify the specific teaming behaviors that help patients and HCPs to coproduce safety at known diagnostic process risk points, and then develop and disseminate tools to support patients, care partners, interpreters, and clinicians as active contributors to the diagnostic process.

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The Patient-Partnered Diagnostic Center of Excellence

Diagnostic errors are a significant public health concern and the leading cause of harm due to medical care in the U.S.; yet research to date has principally focused on the clinician as the center of both the problems and the solutions. The Patient-Partnered Diagnostic Center of Excellence will shift this paradigm by convening diverse scientists and patients around research questions developed and prioritized by patients, yielding patient-centered diagnostic safety solutions and reductions in diagnostic safety events. By providing clear evidence by measuring the problem (Safety I) and devising solutions to build diagnostic team resilience (Safety II), our Center has high potential to improve diagnostic safety for all patients in the U.S.

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Pediatric Quality Initiatives

Through an AAP/CMSS grant, PFPS US contributes to the Pediatric Quality Minute Series, which aims to improve diagnostic excellence in ambulatory pediatrics.


The aim of this activity is to improve diagnostic knowledge and decrease diagnostic errors in the ambulatory setting through brief educational videos. The videos will be supported by an infographic describing actionable best practices, tools, and resources that pediatricians can use to implement the learnings from each video.

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PCORI Engagement Award

Working with the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, this project addresses radiation risk in medicine by enabling shared decision-making between patients and providers.

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Measures