Deadline: 9-May-23
The National Institutes of Health is offering grants to support the development, testing, and validation of outcome-focused mental health care quality measures, in a form suitable for submission to, and endorsement by, relevant regulatory or governing bodies.
Outcome-focused quality measures take the form of assessing the fraction of a given group of patients – e.g., those served by a given clinician, facility, health system, or health plan – whose outcomes meet or exceed certain specified clinical objectives. While standardized instruments for assessing patient clinical status are plentiful, there is a gap in the translation of standardized instruments of patients’ clinical status into outcome-focused measures of mental health care. Endorsement by relevant regulatory or governing bodies will facilitate implementation of these measures, for example, into clinical practice, health care quality reporting, and alternative payment programs.
Research Objectives
- The goal of this NOFO is to support research to develop and validate outcome-focused quality measures for mental health conditions. Projects should aim to facilitate the development and validation of mental health measures that will be submitted to national governing bodies for endorsement. These governing bodies include (but are not limited to) the National Quality Forum, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Measures Under Consideration (MUC) process, or other relevant national, state, or local governing bodies that use quality measures to inform reimbursement for mental health services.
- Such measures should be developed with consultation with the relevant governing bodies prior to submission, to ensure that the requirements of the governing body will be met, and to help ensure the development of an acceptable and implementable measure.
- It is expected that recipients will communicate with one another, through participation in Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) meetings, as well as other activities that the PD/PIs may choose to develop. These meetings may provide a forum to discuss topics such as project updates, the process of submission to governing bodies, strategies that can be used to improve standards and validation procedures for quality measures, and best practices to disseminate findings to clinical and policy communities. NIH staff may participate in meetings as a resource.
- This NOFO is for research to be conducted in the U.S. or with clear relevance to the U.S. domestic health system.
Specific Areas of Research Interest
- Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Development and testing of new outcome-focused measures of mental health care quality, based on existing standardized clinical measures.
- Development and testing of quality measures that focus on patient functioning, based on measurement of specific patient goals such as living independently, obtaining/retaining work or education, or other quality of life indicators germane to recovery and cure of mental illness. These outcome-focused measures might be based on existing patient-reported instruments such as the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS), the Sheehan Disability Scale or other measures.
Funding Information
- NIMH intends to commit $1,500,000 in FY 24 to fund up to 4 awards.
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible Organizations
- Higher Education Institutions
- Public/State Controlled Institutions of Higher Education
- Private Institutions of Higher Education
- The following types of Higher Education Institutions are always encouraged to apply for NIH support as Public or Private Institutions of Higher Education:
- Hispanic-serving Institutions
- Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
- Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs)
- Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions
- Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs)
- Nonprofits Other Than Institutions of Higher Education
- Nonprofits with 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education)
- Nonprofits without 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education)
- For-Profit Organizations
- Small Businesses
- For-Profit Organizations (Other than Small Businesses)
- Local Governments
- State Governments
- County Governments
- City or Township Governments
- Special District Governments
- Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (Federally Recognized)
- Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (Other than Federally Recognized)
- Federal Government
- Eligible Agencies of the Federal Government
- U.S. Territory or Possession
- Other
- Independent School Districts
- Public Housing Authorities/Indian Housing Authorities
- Native American Tribal Organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
- Faith-based or Community-based Organizations
- Regional Organizations
- Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Institutions)
- Foreign Institutions
- Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Institutions) are eligible to apply.
- Non-domestic (non-U.S.) components of U.S. Organizations are eligible to apply.
- Foreign components, as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are allowed.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.