The AHRQ Safety Program for Telemedicine is led by NORC at the University of Chicago (NORC) and Johns Hopkins Medicine and is funded and guided by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
The AHRQ Safety Program for Telemedicine provides practices with evidence-based patient safety practices, individualized expert coaching, and technical assistance from physician subject matter experts to support practices in the following areas:
The program is focused on improving antibiotic use and will include primary care and ambulatory care practices who provide care exclusively via telemedicine or via a mix of telemedicine and in-person visits. The program will begin in June 2024 and is currently welcoming practices.
Sara Keller, M.D., M.P.H., M.S.P.H., is an associate professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she primarily sees patients at the Johns Hopkins Greenspring Station and also attends on the inpatient infectious disease consult service at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. She serves as the medical director of the Johns Hopkins Hospital Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy (OPAT) Service. Dr. Keller graduated from the Duke University School of Medicine in 2007. She completed her master of public health degree in epidemiology in 2006 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She then completed a residency in internal medicine in the Osler Medical Residency Training Program at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in 2010, a fellowship in infectious diseases at the University of Pennsylvania in 2012, and a fellowship in the University of Pennsylvania Centers for Healthcare Improvement and Patient Safety in 2013. She also completed a master of science degree in health policy at the University of Pennsylvania in 2013. Dr. Keller is the principal investigator for the AHRQ Safety Program for Telemedicine: Improving Antibiotic Use.
Pranita Tamma, M.D., M.P.H., is an associate professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Director of the Pediatric Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. As director of antimicrobial stewardship, she assists clinicians with optimizing the selection of antibiotics in both the inpatient and outpatient setting to improve patient outcomes while minimizing antibiotic-associated harm. She is a previous and current recipient of Federal research funding from the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and AHRQ. Dr. Tamma is a co-investigator for the AHRQ Safety Program for Telemedicine: Improving Antibiotic Use.
Bradford Winters, M.D., Ph.D., is an ICU intensivist in the Johns Hopkins Hospital surgical intensive care units, which developed the original AHRQ Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) strategy to drive central line-associated bloodstream infection improvement programs. He has supported the AHRQ CUSP for Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections Prevention project and provided CUSP content expertise and education for the “Empower and Educate All Staff on the Science of Safety” program for the U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. He served as the principal investigator for the AHRQ ACTION III projects validating the AHRQ Quality Safety Review system software outside of Federal hospital databases and co-led the Society for Critical Care Medicine’s Alarm and Alert Fatigue Task Force as a patient safety threat. Dr. Winters is a co-principal investigator for the AHRQ Safety Program for Telemedicine: Improving Antibiotic Use.
Alison Laffan, Ph.D., is a principal research scientist in NORC’s Health Sciences Department. She brings more than a decade of experience managing Federal research, evaluation, and coordination projects for AHRQ, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on topics ranging from hospital-acquired conditions (HACs) to dementia, diabetes, and disabilities. Her other projects include managing work with CMS’s Office of Minority Health (CMS OMH) to develop and disseminate resources for providers to reduce health disparities and improve healthcare quality. For AHRQ, she leads a coordinating center responsible for supporting nursing homes by providing tools and resources on best practices on COVID-19 infection control, care, management, and safety and assessing the effectiveness of AHRQ activities to support nursing homes during the pandemic. She holds a Ph.D. in epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Ashley Anderson, Ph.D., R.N., is research scientist in NORC’s Health Sciences Department. Her background is in nursing science, and she has seven years of experience in research, quality improvement, and program performance evaluations in support of healthcare systems, public health departments, and federal clients. She is experienced in leading operational and technical activities for AHRQ, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Office of Minority Health.
Carly Parry, Ph.D., M.S.W., is a NORC vice president with over 20 years of expertise in the translation of evidence-based programs into practice. Parry led implementation and training for the nationally recognized Care Transitions Program™. She also led work in cancer care delivery at the National Cancer Institute, closed gaps in care delivery at Kaiser Permanente, and, at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Center’s (PCORI), headed AHRQ/PCORI Learning Health Systems and workforce development programs. Parry has served as a technical expert informing AHRQ’s Development of the Learning Health System Researcher Core Competencies, as an expert for the National Academy of Medicine’s Roundtable on Value and Science-Driven Health Care, Best Practice Innovation Collaborative: Patients on the Healthcare Team, and a thought leader for cancer, chronic illness, and transitional care initiatives.
Roy Ahn, M.P.H., Sc.D., is vice president in the Public Health Department at NORC at the University of Chicago. He was the project director of one of the evaluation portfolios of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Health Care Innovation Award portfolios, and currently leads public health projects for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has worked for 20 years at the intersection of program leadership and research in the areas of health policy, nonprofit/civil society organization management and strategy, and public health innovation. Prior to NORC, he served as the founding associate director of the Division of Global Health & Human Rights in the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Department of Emergency Medicine, where he helped design, implement, and evaluate health innovation programs. He was also assistant professor of emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School. He holds a doctor of science degree from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Prashila Dullabh, M.D., is a vice president and senior fellow at NORC at the University of Chicago. She also directs the NORC Health Implementation Science Center. Dr. Dullabh is a clinician with more than 20 years of experience in healthcare and health services research. Dr. Dullabh has led several technical assistance, evaluation, and strategic projects for Federal agencies and foundations. Her work includes large-scale implementation science projects focused on patient safety. She is co-investigator for a multiyear AHRQ-funded project in collaboration with John Hopkins Medicine focused on antibiotic stewardship. Dr. Dullabh is also involved in other patient safety initiatives including the Maryland Statewide Prevention and Reduction of COVID-19 (SPARC) and the AHRQ National Nursing Home COVID-19 Coordinating Center.