LOS ANGELES – A UCLA-led consortium of five University of California medical schools and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has received a $9.9 million grant from HHS's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to investigate the use of wireless and telephone care management to reduce hospital readmissions for heart failure patients.

The project will be a three-armed, randomized controlled trial examining the effect of two interventions: managing the transition from inpatient to outpatient care via telephone, and managing the transition from inpatient to outpatient care via wireless remote monitors and telephone. These will be compared to the standard care for heart failure patients.

"Heart failure patients have high rates of hospital readmissions, and a critical window for preventing readmissions is as the patient transitions from the inpatient to outpatient setting," said Michael Ong, assistant professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the grant's principal investigator. "This project compares two approaches designed to help patients make a smooth transition from inpatient to outpatient care. We will compare whether each approach reduces readmissions among heart failure patients at six different medical centers."

The three-year grant, "Variations in Care: Comparing Heart Failure Care Transition Intervention Effects," is funded under the AHRQ's Clinical and Health Outcomes Initiative in Comparative Effectiveness (CHOICE) program. It is part of $473 million in AHRQ grants and contracts that support projects to help people make healthcare decisions based on the best evidence of effectiveness. The funding, announced Sept. 30, covers all of the AHRQ's allocation and $173 million administered for the HHS Secretary by the AHRQ.