Participants are invited to join the agency-wide effort to modernize AHRQ’s TeamSTEPPS Training Program and advance health information technology.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) (@AHRQNews), announced a new Challenge competition inviting participants to develop innovative TeamSTEPPS video content, which is a vital part of AHRQ’s patient safety resources and features a training program comprised of evidence-based tools and resources to promote communication and teamwork between healthcare professionals.
“Based on over 20 years of scientific research into the application of teamwork principles in a healthcare setting, the TeamSTEPPS training program has provided medical teams with the resources to better communicate, increase awareness and resolve conflicts to improve the overall patient experience,” said AHRQ Director Robert Valdez, Ph.D., M.H.S.A. “To modernize our program, we are inviting participants to develop new video content and help us reinvigorate an integral part of our training curriculum.”
The TeamSTEPPS training program promotes effective teamwork, collaboration, and communication skills that ultimately creates a safer and more efficient healthcare environment for patients and medical staff members. The training curriculum focuses on specific strategies and tools that can be used to improve medical staff performance, patient safety, and quality of care.
The COVID-19 pandemic immeasurably challenged the healthcare industry and demonstrated areas with a need for improvement. As health information technology continues to advance, the current TeamSTEPPS videos need to be updated to align more closely with current clinical practice, standards of care, and methods of training and education.
This Challenge calls on participants to create new and innovative content to bolster the training curricula by adding to or replacing current videos. There are two phases to this Challenge and only winners of phase one will be eligible for phase two. There can be up to 10 winners in phase two; each will be awarded $10,000. Phase two winners will be announced by the end of the year.
Timeline
April 27, 2022—Challenge launch
June 20, 2022—Submissions for Phase 1 (written proposals) are due. AHRQ will complete the review of the proposals within 6-8 weeks of closing the announcement.
August 2022—AHRQ will announce the Phase 1 winners at the end of August 2022. Phase 2 of the Challenge will commence once the Phase 1 winners are announced and notified by August 31, 2022. The AHRQ team will schedule a live, virtual technical assistance webinar with all winners of Phase 1 to discuss scope of content, end-product quality, accessibility/compliance with Section 508, and address questions that the winners may have.
October 31, 2022—Phase 2 participants will have 60 calendar days from notification to create and submit their production(s) as described in their proposal(s). The deadline to submit the videos is October 31, 2022.
December 2022—The final winners of Phase 2 of the competition will be announced in December 2022.
Prize Amounts
Only the participants selected as winners of Phase 1 will be eligible to enter Phase 2. Phase 1 winners will not be awarded cash prizes.
Winners of Phase 2 will be awarded $10,000 per successful video. Up to 10 cash prizes will be awarded.
Participants in Phase 2 may be disqualified if their submitted video deviates from their winning proposal or if the production quality does not meet standards per the assessment criteria stated in this announcement and the technical assistance standards. In case any Phase 2 proposals are disqualified, another proposal(s) from Phase 1 may be considered; any additional winner(s) will be contacted about submitting a video and will be given a new 60-day deadline to do so.