# PA-20-070: Partnership for Medication Safety in Primary Care and Telehealth during COVID-19 Public Health Crisis

> **NIH AHRQ R18** · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS ARLINGTON · 2021 · $375,977

## Abstract

This one-year Revision Supplement to the parent project (“PROMIS Lab: Partnership in Resilience for
Medication Safety” or “PROMIS Lab”) is to meet immediate needs to help address timely health system and
healthcare professional response to the COVID-19 public health crisis. Our research is to evaluate the impact
from two broad disruptions to primary care delivery in the response to the COVID-19 public health crisis. One
is the inabilities or reluctance to visit primary clinics, resulting in delayed or missed care. Another is the use of
telehealth modalities, to reduce exposure to pathogens. However, certain visits (e.g., blood test) must be
performed in person, while balancing patient needs and COVID-19 associated social distancing rules. We refer
to the different types of visits as multiple engagement modalities. Both types of disruptions have direct impact
on patient safety, presumably negatively. The proposed research in the Revision Supplement is urgently
needed. Primary care clinics face unprecedented disruption brought by the COVID-19 public health crisis.
Understanding the impact of the crisis on patient safety provide evidence to gaps and to best practices to
ensure patient safety. We will target underserved populations with health disparity, as such populations have
experienced disproportionally higher mortalities from COVID-19 while they are subjected to technology and
logistics associated barriers exacerbated by social determinants of health. The specific aim of the Revision
Supplement is to evaluate the impact of engagement modalities, such as telehealth, on healthcare access and
safety during COVID-19 Pandemic. Based on the evaluation, we will synthesize findings into practice
guidelines to support primary care clinics and organizations in responding to unique challenges posed by the
pandemic. We will achieve the aim with four subaims: (a).Characterize disruptions and adaptation due to
COVID-19 in primary care delivery by reviewing administrative and clinical data, (b).Assess barriers and
facilitators in primary care delivery due to COVID-19 by conducting qualitative interview studies with frontline
clinicians and administrators, (c).Evaluate patient engagement using telehealth visit modalities using post-visit
surveys by targeting patients with known risk factors for medication safety concerns, and (d).Develop guidance
to primary care clinics on ways to improve safety to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19pandemic, through
expert panels and simulation modeling of different scheduling practices for various modalities of patient visits.
The proposed Supplement research activities are designed to be highly feasible with the short, one-year
timeline, to be accomplished in parallel and in conjunction of the parent project. The proposed activities
capitalize on the clinical partners and research expertise in the parent project PROMIS Lab, and will use
similar methodologies, to evaluate patient safety across different types of clinics and ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10175928
- **Project number:** 3R18HS027277-02S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS ARLINGTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Yan Xiao
- **Activity code:** R18 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** AHRQ
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $375,977
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2019-09-30 → 2023-09-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10175928

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10175928, PA-20-070: Partnership for Medication Safety in Primary Care and Telehealth during COVID-19 Public Health Crisis (3R18HS027277-02S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10175928. Licensed CC0.

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