1. National HIT Resource Center
One of the centerpieces of AHRQ effort
Five year $20M contract
Flexible, responsive, adaptable mechanism
Cross-cutting – goes beyond AHRQ initiatives
Overarching purpose:
integrating function
make the whole greater than the sum of its parts

2. National RC Team National Opinion Research Center
Foundation for eHealth Initiative: Expertise in convening HIT stakeholders and fostering collaboration
Three academic thought leaders:
Indiana University/Regenstrief
Vanderbilt University
Center for Information Technology Leadership/Partners
Burness Communications: Policy-focused Public Relations
BL Seamon Corporation: Logistical and coordination support
Computer Sciences Corporation: Technology design and support services

3. Audiences/Beneficiaries
AHRQ
Other government and funders
AHRQ HIT Projects
102 Planning, Implementation and Value Grantees
5 State and Regional HIT Demonstration Projects
HIT Stakeholders
Broader Health World
Includes patients, clinicians, health care delivery organizations, payers, federal, state, local govt.

4. 4 Key Resource Center Functions
Monitoring, assessment, evaluation
Technical assistance, knowledge resources
Convening
community of scholarship, learning, knowledge sharing
Includes both “internal” and “external” stakeholder
Includes special efforts aimed at state/regional exchange
Synthesis, dissemination, outreach

5. Highlights of NRC work to date
needs assessment across the AHRQ portfolio
formal TA teleconferences, 12 thus far
responded to 120 discrete technical assistance requests
10 site visits around the country (and counting)
State HIT roundtables and summits, 5 to date
knowledge resource creation (white papers, tools & products)
web: (1) grantee portal; (2) public website
collaborative workspace
contacts, threaded discussion groups
comprehensive knowledge repository
news, highlights, funding opportunities products and tools
annual meeting (June 2005): 850 spanning stakeholders
evaluation workshop (November)
support of inter-agency coordination activities

6. NRC Teleconferences Conducted to Date
Good Grantsmanship: Guidance on Grant Writing, Project Management and Evaluation
Building Successful Consortia: How to Convene, Govern and Sustain Collaborations
Clinical Transformation: Planning and Managing Workflow Changes in Health IT Adoption
HIPAA Administrative Simplification: Practical Privacy and Security
Practical Advice for the Evaluation of Health IT
Creating Shared Clinical Data Repositories: Best Practices and Lessons Learned
Telemedicine: From Promise to Policy to Pragmatism
Technical Details of a RHIO
An Overview of the Landscape on Health IT
Louisiana Rural Health Information Technology Partnership (Presented by AHRQ Health IT Project)
Selecting and Implementing a Survey Instrument for Your Project (Presented by AHRQ Health IT Project)
A Proposed "Common Framework" for Health Care IT (planned for Sep. 22)

7. Extranet and Knowledge Repository
Info on other AHRQ funded health IT projects
Latest documents, news, events and teleconferences