AHRQ Understanding and Improving Diagnostic Safety in Ambulatory Care: Incidence and Contributing Factors (R01) | RFA HS 23 010

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA HS 23 010

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) grant opportunity titled "AHRQ Understanding and Improving Diagnostic Safety in Ambulatory Care: Incidence and Contributing Factors (R01)" (Funding Opportunity Number RFA-HS-23-010; CFDA 93.226) supports research aimed at strengthening diagnostic safety in ambulatory care, which includes the many outpatient settings where people receive evaluation, testing, treatment, and follow-up outside the hospital. The central goal is to generate clearer, evidence-based understanding of how often diagnostic errors happen in these real-world outpatient environments and what factors contribute to them, recognizing that ambulatory care is highly varied across clinics, health systems, community practices, and different service lines. AHRQ is specifically looking for proposals that can measure or characterize the incidence of diagnostic error and identify contributory factors within and across the broad range of ambulatory services, with the broader intent that this knowledge will inform practical improvements to reduce harm and improve the reliability of diagnosis.

This is a discretionary grant using the NIH-style R01 research project mechanism, meaning it is intended for substantial, hypothesis-driven or question-driven research projects that can produce rigorous findings and generalizable insights. The focus on "incidence and contributing factors" signals that AHRQ is prioritizing work that does more than describe isolated cases; it is looking for studies that can quantify how frequently diagnostic problems occur (for example, across specific conditions, populations, or clinical workflows) and explain why they occur (for example, communication breakdowns, test follow-up failures, care fragmentation, cognitive and system factors, EHR-related issues, patient access barriers, or coordination challenges between primary care, urgent care, and specialty clinics). Because ambulatory care is heterogeneous, the opportunity is also oriented toward understanding variation across settings and services rather than assuming a one-size-fits-all outpatient model.

Eligibility is broad and includes a wide range of U.S.-based organizations and governmental entities. Eligible applicants include state, county, city or township governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; tribal organizations other than federally recognized tribal governments; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with 501(c)(3) status and nonprofits without 501(c)(3) status (in both cases, other than institutions of higher education); for-profit organizations other than small businesses; and small businesses. The announcement also explicitly calls out additional eligible applicants such as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISISs), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), faith-based or community-based organizations, regional organizations, eligible federal agencies, and U.S. territories or possessions. At the same time, there are clear restrictions around foreign involvement: non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities and non-domestic (non-U.S.) foreign institutions are not eligible to apply, and non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are also not eligible under this opportunity.

Key administrative details include an original closing date of April 19, 2023, and an award ceiling listed as $500,000. The funding opportunity was created on February 13, 2023. While the expected number of awards is not specified in the provided source data, the structure and ceiling suggest AHRQ anticipated a set of competitively selected research projects sized to support meaningful data collection and analysis relevant to outpatient diagnostic safety.

In practical terms, strong applications under this announcement would be expected to propose a clear approach for identifying and measuring diagnostic error in outpatient care and for isolating the drivers behind those errors in a way that can guide improvement. Given AHRQ's stated interest in both incidence and contributory factors across ambulatory services, competitive projects would likely emphasize robust methods (for example, analyses of clinical data sources, structured reviews, mixed methods, or system-level assessments) and careful attention to how outpatient diagnosis unfolds over time, often across multiple visits, tests, referrals, and care transitions. The overall theme is building the evidence base needed to reduce diagnostic errors and improve patient safety where most health care actually happens: in outpatient and community-based settings.

• The Agency for Health Care Research and Quality in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "AHRQ Understanding and Improving Diagnostic Safety in Ambulatory Care: Incidence and Contributing Factors (R01)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.226.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2023-02-13.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-04-19. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $500,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

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