New Grants Focus on Interventions to Improve Diagnosis

Research has demonstrated that diagnostic errors are the most common, catastrophic and costly of all causes of preventable medical harm. Given the magnitude of diagnostic error burden, the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM) launched the DxQI Seed Grant Program, a competitive grant process to fund interventions to improve diagnosis. In September, 17 grantees were selected to receive awards of up to $50,000. In January, SIDM will issue the second call for proposals.

The DxQI program is focused on a "bottom up" approach, where frontline health professionals and patients develop and test plausible solutions that have the potential for scale and spread.

“There are few proven, easily replicable, real-world solutions to improve diagnostic quality and safety,” said Gerard M. Castro, PhD, MPH, PMP, director of quality improvement at SIDM. “Through the work of the DxQI grantees, we are learning about the tools and practices to integrate into the diagnostic process that help ensure that patients receive a diagnosis that is accurate, timely, and effectively communicated.”

Most of the grantees selected in this first round are focused on developing interventions to reduce diagnostic errors in three specific disease categories: cancers, vascular events, and infections. Together, those categories account for about half of inaccurate or delayed diagnoses that result in serious harm or death, according to a study published in Diagnosis. Several grantees are developing improvement projects that address racial and gender disparities in diagnosis.

Ultimately, the DxQI program will help clinicians, hospitals, and health systems take specific steps to reduce diagnostic errors and support an evidence base of effective interventions. These interventions will be added to a clearinghouse of interventions intended to catalyze adoption by healthcare organizations across the country.

Funding for the DxQI program is made possible with the support of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

The next grant application period opens in January 2021. Organizations can learn more at www.ImproveDiagnosis.org/dxqi/.