Infrastructure for Comparative Effectiveness Research on Innovative Delivery Systems for Complex Patients

This project is establishing a statewide data infrastructure for comparative effectiveness research (CER) on healthcare delivery innovations for complex patients in low-income communities. It addresses two CER priorities established by the Institute of Medicine in 2009 to evaluate outcomes of: 1) “…comprehensive care coordination programs, such as the medical home, in managing children and adults with severe chronic disease, especially in populations with known health disparities”; and 2) “accountable care systems …for geographically defined populations of patients with one or more chronic diseases.” In order to expand research capability to study comparative effectiveness in complex patients, this project has three specific aims: 1. Build a sustainable longitudinal database of linked hospital, Medicaid, and charity care claims and encounter records in New Jersey for CER on strategies to improve the delivery of care to complex patients in low-income communities. 2. Build and evaluate measures of resource use and quality of care for CER on innovative delivery systems for complex patients in low-income communities using the database developed under Aim 1. 3. Demonstrate the potential of this new research infrastructure by conducting a pilot evaluation of health services resource use and quality for complex patients served by an innovative care coordination program in Camden, New Jersey.