2022 CRICO Grant Recipients

More than 57 CRICO-insured researchers will be principal investigators of projects being funded by CRICO in 2022. At the forefront of topics being studied are telemedicine, health care equity, and emergency medicine interventions.

CRICO, a recognized leader in evidence-based risk management, owned by and serving the Harvard medical community, works with its member organizations to increase its footprint in championing and advancing patient safety efforts through an annual request for applications (RFA) grants program.

Each year, CRICO analyzes medical malpractice claims experiences and engages a team of experts from its membership to identify RFA focus areas. For the 2022 RFA program, the focus areas were: Patient Assessment, Management and Performance of Medical Treatment/Procedural Safety, Emergency Medicine, OB/GYN, Surgery, Emerging Health Care Delivery Models, Data Analytics, Employment Practices Liability, and Documentation.

CRICO received 78 Letters of Intent from across 10 member organizations and all proposals were reviewed by internal CRICO staff and subject matter experts from the membership. This year, CRICO is pleased to continue its funding tradition by awarding grants to:

Optimizing the evaluation and diagnosis of neonatal hypoglycemia: Principal Investigator: Sarbattama Sen, MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Co-PIs: Gary Steil; PhD, Mohamed El-Dib, MD

Creating a highly reliable sign and symptom tracking system to prevent delays in cancer diagnosis: Principal Investigator: Tayla Salant, MD, PhD, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Co-PIs: Russell Phillips, MD; Seth Berkowitz, MD; James Benneyan, PhD; Gordon Schiff, MD

Radiology care coordination to reduce screening mammography access barriers and delays: Principal Investigator: Gary Wang, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital; Co-PIs: Efren J Flores, MD; Kelly Irwin, MD, MPH; Elyse Park, PhD, MPH; Constance Lehman, MD, PhD

Remote postoperative monitoring of thoracic surgery patients using machine learning algorithms, wearable devices, and patient-reported symptoms to improve patient safety: Principal Investigator: Jeffrey Chi-Fu Yang, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital; Co-PI: Xiao Li, PhD

Strengthening emergency medicine incidental findings follow-up: A novel emergency medicine and primary care collaboration: Principal Investigator: Jorge Fradinho, PhD, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Co-PIs: Jayson Carr, MD, Shamai Grossman, MD, MPH

Using electronic health record data and trajectory analysis to identify and diagnose deep tissue injuries: Principal Investigator: Patricia Dykes, RN, PhD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Co-PIs: Wenyu Song, PhD, Stuart Lipsitz, PhD

Telemedicine use within pediatric urology: assessing safety of virtual-care and addressing equity through improved access: Co-Principal Investigators: Julia Finkelstein, MD MPH, CPPS and Caleb Nelson, MD, MPH, Boston Children’s Hospital; Co-Investigators: Andrea Balthazar, MD, Ozge Yetistirici, PhD

Improving follow-up recommendations after a colonoscopy for colorectal cancer screening: Principal Investigator: Steven Atlas, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital; Co-PIs: James Richter, MD, Jennifer Haas, MD, MS

Centralized remote risk assessment in the second stage of labor: Co-Principal Investigators: Emily Reiff, MD and Sarah Little, MD, MPH, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Understanding the current state of telehealth at an urban pediatric health care system: Principal Investigator: Debra Lajoie, RN; Boston Children’s Hospital, Co-PIs: Terry Saia, DNP, APRN, CPNP, Sarah Atwood, BSN, RN, Sarah de Ferranti, MD, MPH, Kathy Morgan Gorman, DNP, RN, NE-BC, Patricia A. Hickey, PhD, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN

The 21st Century Cures Act: An opportunity to provide more equitable care and reduce malpractice risk: Principal Investigator: Timmy Ho, MD, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Co-PI: Emily Whitesel, MD

Surfacing hidden lab data to improve care value: Principal Investigator: Craig Monsen, MD, Atrius Health

Safely managing acute respiratory infections with virtual visits: Principal Investigator: Joshua Metlay, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital; Co-PIs: Emily Hayden, MD, Ralph Gonzales, MD, Timothy Judson, MD

Initiation of pediatric sepsis screening in community hospital emergency departments: Principal Investigator: Melissa Sundberg, MD, Boston Children’s Hospital; Co-PI: Jessica Sexton, MSN, RN, CPEN

Development of a medical home screening tool leading to early medical home establishment: Principal Investigator: Caitlin Bradley, RN, Boston Children’s Hospital; Co-PIs: Stacey Cook, MD, PhD, Cheryl Toole MS, RN, CCRN, NEA-BC, Michele DeGrazia PhD, RN, NNP-BC, FAAN

Improving postpartum hypertension management: a randomized controlled trial to investigate an algorithm to improve quality and decrease disparities in care: Principal Investigator: Ilona Goldfarb, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital; Co-PIs: Amy Sarma, MD, Melanie Nathan, MD, North Shore Medical Center

CRICO also directs a grant program to fund projects in which CRICO seeks collaborators and partners to pilot concepts and interventions and expand and operationalize work that has already demonstrated efficacy.

For 2022, CRICO is pleased to award a CRICO-directed grant to: Illuminating the OR: From individual coaching to video review of surgical team performance: Co-Principal Investigators: Doug Smink, MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Aalok Agarwala, MD; Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary

CRICO anticipates opening its 2023 RFA program in June/July. When available, CRICO will notify its member institutions and provide further details on its website.