The Effective Health Care Program

Mission

The Effective Health Care (EHC) Program funds individual researchers, research centers, and academic organizations to work with AHRQ to produce patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) for clinicians, consumers, and policymakers. PCOR is designed to inform health care decisions by providing evidence on the effectiveness, benefits, and harms of different treatment options. The EHC Program reviews and synthesizes published and unpublished scientific evidence, generates new scientific evidence and analytic tools, and translates research findings into useful formats for various audiences. Stakeholders are involved throughout the research process to improve research results and ensure findings are relevant to users’ distinct concerns.

Go to effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov

Relevance

The EHC Program develops products that present the benefits and harms of different treatment options in a scientifically rigorous, unbiased manner. The products can be used to improve the quality of health care and facilitate evidence-based health care decisionmaking.

Products

Research reviews draw on completed scientific studies to compare different health care interventions or show where more research is needed. Original research reports explore practical questions about the effectiveness of treatments. Research summaries use plain language to summarize the findings of research reviews for clinicians, consumers, or policymakers.

Audiences

The research reviews, original research reports, and research summaries are designed to help clinicians, consumers, and policymakers make better decisions about treatment. Other EHC Program stakeholders include caregivers, patient advocacy organizations, clinicians' professional associations, health care institutions, health care researchers, health care industry representatives, purchasers, and payers.

Stakeholder Engagement

The EHC Program involves stakeholders throughout the process of designing, conducting, translating, disseminating, and implementing patient-centered outcomes research. Stakeholders nominate, prioritize, and refine research topics, provide scientific input and guidance, serve as peer reviewers, assist with translating research findings, and help disseminate and implement EHC products.

Program Resources and Collaborators

• Evidence-based Practice Centers (EPCs) perform in-depth reviews of existing evidence.
• The DEcIDE (Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions about Effectiveness) Research Network gathers new knowledge on specific treatments and health care services.
• The Healthcare Horizon Scanning System identifies new and emerging issues.
• The Centers for Education & Research Therapeutics (CERTs) conduct research and education about drugs, biological products, and medical devices.
• The Scientific Resource Center provides scientific support for the EHC Program.
• The Community Forum develops tools and resources to expand public and stakeholder engagement in AHRQ's patient-centered outcomes research and the EHC Program.