The National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) announced the receipt of two federal grants for NPSF's research and education efforts. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) awarded almost $1 million to NPSF for a three-year period. The two projects funded by these grants are: ``Improved Patient Safety through Web-Based Education,'' and the ``Development Center for Education and Research in Patient Safety.'' Through this grant, the NPSF will develop, evaluate, and disseminate Web- based and population-specific patient safety education tools with a supporting database on various patient safety resources. The goal of this program is to equip health care providers and patients with practical patient safety science knowledge that can be applied to interactions within the health care system.

All educational products will provide the opportunity to earn continuing medical education (CME) credits for healthcare professionals, which will be accomplished through a partnership with the Medical College of Wisconsin.

``We are delighted to receive these significant grants that will ultimately help us in furthering the patient safety mission,'' said William Hendee, PhD, member, NPSF board of directors. ``Our hope is to cultivate and develop collaborative relationships with health care delivery organizations, consumer groups and other relevant parties. We will also examine other practices and cultures of safety to be brought to the design and improvement of healthcare systems.''

The National Patient Safety Foundation was founded in 1996 by the American Medical Association, CNA HealthPro, 3M, and contributions from the Schering- Plough Corporation. The NPSF is an independent, nonprofit research and education organization. It is an unprecedented partnership of health care practitioners, institutional providers, health product providers, health product manufacturers, researchers, legal advisors, patient/consumer advocates, regulators, and policy makers committed to making health care safer for patients. Through leadership, research support, and education, the NPSF is committed to making patient safety a national priority. For more information, please visit www.npsf.org .