Health Analytics and Quality Award Competition
The Health Analytics and Quality (HAQ) Award is an annual competition that provides $50,000 in funding to support the development of clinically relevant process and outcome measures within the University of Calgary’s Department of Medicine (DOM). The award aims to foster innovation in health analytics and quality improvement to enhance patient care quality and safety. Eligible projects should align with the DOM’s mission of promoting a strong culture of quality improvement and patient safety. Applicants are encouraged to focus on developing actionable quality measures or initiating clinical quality improvement projects.
Further details on the application process and criteria are available in our annual award Terms of Reference.
2017: Dr. Anshula Ambasta
"Development of Clinically Relevant Measures for General Internal Medicine Patients"
Project Outcome Summary: The project successfully established a multidisciplinary team (Q-SAFE) within General Internal Medicine across four adult tertiary care hospitals. It developed a Tableau dashboard integrating data from multiple sources to track outcome and process measures on medical teaching units. The work resulted in scholarly publications on physician continuity of care and laboratory test utilization. Additionally, it laid the foundation for quality improvement projects on appropriate lab testing, securing further funding from the Medicine Strategic Clinical Network and CIHR.
How the Grant Helped: The grant played a key role in developing a QI infrastructure within General Internal Medicine, leading to the creation of the Q-SAFE committee and a division-wide QI project. It fostered physician involvement in practice metrics and ongoing reviews. It facilitated collaborations with analysts and the Physician Learning Program, resulting in publications and securing CIHR project grant funding.
2018: Dr. Sachin Pendharkar
"Measuring Patient Experience with Care for Sleep-Disordered Breathing"
Project Outcome Summary: A survey tool to capture patient experience with care for sleep-disordered breathing at the FMC Sleep Centre was developed and implemented using an approved online survey tool. However, low uptake resulted in unreliable data, preventing the incorporation of survey reporting into the Centre's Quality Improvement (QI) initiatives. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic, the transition to Connect Care systems, and team member turnover disrupted the project and shifted the focus of QI efforts. While progress was made in laying the foundation for incorporating patient experience data into QI evaluation, the planned outcome was not achieved.
How the Grant Helped: The award funding supported efforts to capture patient experience as part of quality improvement (QI) evaluations at the FMC Sleep Centre, fostering a culture of continuous improvement. It also helped an early-career leader develop QI expertise, engage others in QI work, and establish a reputation as a local expert. While not all goals were met, valuable lessons were learned that have strengthened future QI initiatives.
2019: Dr. Shannon Ruzycki
"Perioperative Glycemic Management and Surgical Site Infection Risk in Gynecologic Oncology Patients"
Project Outcome Summary: Tableau dashboards were co-created to track perioperative glucose measurement processes, outcomes, and balancing measures. Initially focused on gynecologic oncology, the dashboards were expanded to include other surgical services in Calgary, such as PLC Vascular Surgery, RGH Urology, and SHC Orthopedic Surgery. Although the original plan was to link these dashboards to SSI data from IP&C and NSQIP, collaboration was hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, EHR data (30-day readmissions, length of stay) was used as the primary outcome.
How the Grant Helped: The grant provided salary support and time for a DOM analyst to co-develop the data elements and dashboards.
2023: Dr. Elissa Rennert-May
"Developing A Provincial Strategy of CIED Infection Surveillance Using Administrative Health Data"
Project Outcome Summary: The project identified a gap in post-surgical CIED infection surveillance in Alberta and Canada, using administrative data to track infections. This new approach was well-received by key users, offering the ability to monitor trends across the province, including in resource-limited areas. A potential disadvantage is overestimating infection rates due to coding issues. The project explored using a Tableau dashboard to monitor trends and trigger more intensive surveillance if needed. The project was completed and is now in the implementation phase.
How the Grant Helped: The funding advanced healthcare by improving patient care, provider experience, and SSI surveillance strategies. It supported early career investigators in developing a research program on surgical site infections, particularly CIED infections. The team continues this work, with a graduate student joining in the fall, and was invited to join the international RECTIFY registry trial on CIED infections.