UNC Urology is pleased to announce that Dr. Dave Friedlander, Assistant Professor of Urology, has been awarded the K08 Career Development Award from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). This award will support Dr. Friedlander’s project, titled “Using Mixed Methods to Reduce Disparities in Renal Colic Care: A Model for Surgical Value Transformation.”
Dr. Friedlander’s project addresses the critical need to enhance surgical value by focusing on renal colic, a common and costly condition characterized by significant variation in perioperative care. His research will employ a mixed-methods approach to identify both clinical and social risk factors that impact perioperative outcomes and costs. By integrating claims data and patient/provider interviews, the project aims to develop a clinical decision support tool designed to improve care by reducing variation in perioperative care intensity and duration.
The project seeks to address the shortcomings of current value-based purchasing (VBP) reforms, which have had only a modest effect on surgical care. By reframing these reforms to capture a broader range of episode-specific clinical and non-clinical events, Dr. Friedlander aims to align policies more closely with patient and provider needs, ultimately improving surgical outcomes and reducing disparities in care.
More About Dr. Friedlander
Dr. Friedlander’s expertise and contributions extend beyond his current award and publication. He was selected as the 2020-2021 AUA Science & Quality Fellow, received the Urology Care Foundation’s Research Scholar Award in 2021, and was featured in the 2024 AUA Annual Meeting Early-Career Investigator’s Showcase. At UNC, he serves as Co-Director of Quality Improvement, where he leads initiatives to enhance patient care and mentors residents in quality improvement efforts. Additionally, he was named a UNC IHQI Improvement Scholar in 2023, further highlighting his commitment to advancing healthcare delivery.
In addition to these significant achievement, Dr. Friedlander recently co-authored a new American Urological Association resource titled “Healthcare Performance Measurement: A Primer for Urologists.” This resource provides an in-depth look at healthcare performance measurement, including its types, development process, challenges, and future directions, emphasizing the importance of reliable measures in improving healthcare quality.