Each organization selected will be expected to:

• Designate appropriate team members to be part of the QI Core Project Team
• Attend a cohort kick-off webinar
• Submit bi-monthly status reports describing:
  • What barriers/challenges have you faced?
  • What unanticipated consequences did you encounter with this month’s tests?
  • How did you overcome those?
• Submit formal mid-project and year-end final reports
• Participate in quarterly calls
• Participate in the online Community
• Attend two designated QI Summits at future SIDM International Conferences
• Recruit an Executive Sponsor who will be required to submit a letter of support
• Confirm no additional external funding is available to do this work
• Ensure the IRB is aware of the proposed project, if required, and appropriate authorization will be obtained prior to the start of the project

A qualifying proposal will meet the following criteria:

1. The project lead represents a facility where health care is delivered.

2. The proposed intervention can be described by one of the four categories below:

a. A well-defined problem and discovery period followed by adequate time for a to-be defined intervention that will be tested and improved.

b. A well-defined intervention that will be tested and improved.

c. An implemented, but unevaluated intervention with a well-defined evaluation plan and an opportunity to improve.

d. An implemented, evaluated intervention that will be tested and improved in a novel setting or with a novel population.

3. We are looking for interventions to reduce important sources of diagnostic error that might include (but are not limited to) cognitive interventions in patient care settings such as checklists or decision support; systems interventions to change diagnostic processes or workflow in practice; or educational interventions where the targeted outcomes of the study are practice change in diagnosis. We are NOT looking for studies that measure the burden or causes of diagnostic error without an intervention; that develop new interventions in “lab” setting without testing them for patient care outcomes; or that are limited to studying new diagnostic tests without an emphasis on reducing error.

4. The team includes meaningful stakeholder involvement including patient or family input or an adequate explanation of why the team would not benefit from patient or family input on this proposed project.

5. The executive sponsor provides a letter of support that confirms:

a. There is organizational support for the project aims.

b. The team is appropriate to meet the project aims.

c. The budget is sufficient to meet project aims on time and within scope.

d. Required people and resources to meet project aims will be available.

e. Data necessary for project completion will be accessible and available.

f. The sponsor will assist in overcoming unanticipated barriers/challenges that pose a threat to project completion.

6. Short bibliography of key articles that support the importance of the problem and/or the suitability of the intervention, if available.

Download the Request for Proposals

Note that a technical review by a limited number of people will be performed to ensure that the submission is complete, that the core project team is appropriate, and that the budget is sufficiently described. If a proposal passes this initial review, a deidentified version will be submitted to peer review using the criteria below.

Content Review

1. Aims, Background, and Approach

a. Do the aims utilize SMART goal attributes (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely)?
b. Does the proposal explicitly and, where possible, quantifiably justify the problem selection, i.e. describe the magnitude of the problem and establish its importance to the diagnostic process?
c. Does the proposal clearly address the importance of addressing this problem for the nation-at-large?
d. Is the proposed intervention supported by a compelling rationale (theory of change or logic model) justifying the linkage between the intervention and the problem’s root causes using literature to add strength to the proposal? If an international location, is the applicability of the intervention to the US health system demonstrated?

2. Project Plan

a. Is the population receiving the intervention specified and is that population appropriate for the aims?
b. Is the process for testing and improving the intervention clearly described (and if utilized, is the discovery process preceding the testing of the intervention clearly described and limited in time?)
c. Is the study design (e.g. pre/post, control group) adequately described and does it include an appropriate comparator (measure) defined to help assess improvement?
d. Does the proposal adequately describe the operational requirements including access to needed data and required participation, if any, from non-core team members?
e. Does the proposal describe short-term outcomes and how the intervention measures are related to these outcomes? Does it describe how the applicant will ultimately evaluate the project’s impact?
f. Does the proposal describe the setting(s) for the intervention?
g. Does the proposal describe the potential unintended negative consequences and the balancing measures they will use to evaluate whether those negative consequences occur?
h. Does the proposal list major milestones including deliverables in all three phases: pre-intervention, intervention and assessment?

3. Organizational Rationale (assessed in preliminary review)

a. Does the project lead have the proper training or experience to lead the QI team?
b. Does the identified core project team exemplify an interdisciplinary approach and address the skills, competencies, and authority needed to execute the project plan?
c. Is there meaningful patient or family involvement in this project, or where deemed to add no value, is that position justified?

4. Risks and risk mitigation

a. Does the proposal adequately address access to data resources?
b. Does the proposal describe other potential project operational challenges and strategies to address those challenges?