ASU's Center for Health Information and Research receives grants
The Center for Health Information and Research (CHiR), under the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Arizona State University, has received three grants to further health care research.
CHiR’s multidisciplinary research team provides actionable information to the public and health communities, while continually developing new methods for storing, collecting, analyzing and disseminating information through well-founded research methods.
The first grant, sponsored by the Arizona Biomedical Research Commission, awards CHiR the second year in a 3-year project to help improve the collected data on Level 1 Trauma Centers and the MHIS Burn Center. In its first year of study, the project revealed the substantial reduction of expected problems with data quality. With an annual budget of $100,000, investigators Professor Diana Petitti and Professor William G. Johnson of Arizona State University’s Department of Biomedical Informatics will work cooperatively with the centers to support and improve their research capacity to improve care and meet the American College of Surgeons criteria for research studies.
CHiR was also awarded the second year of a 3-year study of colorectal cancer testing in Arizona, sponsored by the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) as part of a grant from the Centers for Disease Control. Led by CHiR Statistical Programmer Senior Yue Qiu and CHiR Director and Professor of Biomedical Informatics William G. Johnson, the project aims to increase the prevalence of colorectal screening for eligible adults in Arizona. The annual budget is approximately $36,000.
The third grant awards CHiR a contract for a 4-year follow up study of the changes in the utilization of electronic medical records by Arizona physicians, sponsored by Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) and the Governor’s Health Information Exchange office. With Professor Johnson as the principal investigator of the project, the study combines surveys of all physicians in Arizona with collected information as part of the licensing process. With a total budget of approximately $234,000, the study builds on the data collection model that has been maintained since its introduction to Arizona in 1991.
In 1999, CHiR began as the Health and Disability Research Group in the ASU W. P. Carey School of Business to sponsor research on health and health care for the School of Health Management and Policy. After transferring to the L. William Seidman Research Institute, the group was renamed CHiR and expanded its research focus to study occupational illness and injury and community health information systems, among other health-related issues. In 2009, CHiR became an official research center at ASU, aligning with the Department of Biomedical Informatics to provide a neutral source of relevant information to guide the research of health care services and health insurance coverage in both the private and public sectors.