Comparing medical interventions: AHRQ and the effective health-care program

Accepted 21 June 2008. published online 02 October 2008.
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Abstract

In 2005, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality established the Effective Health Care (EHC) Program. The EHC Program aims to provide understandable and actionable information for patients, clinicians, and policy makers. The Evidence-based Practice Centers are one of the cornerstones of the EHC Program. Three key elements guide the EHC Program and thus, the conduct of Comparative Effectiveness Reviews by the EPC Program. Comparative Effectiveness Reviews introduce several specific challenges in addition to the familiar issues raised in a systematic review or meta-analysis of a single intervention. The articles in this series together form the current Methods Guide for Comparative Effectiveness Reviews of the EHC Program.

Keywords: Comparative effectiveness, Systematic review methods, Evidence-based medicine, AHRQ, Effective health care

Corresponding author. Center for Outcomes and Evidence, AHRQ, 540 Gaither Rd., Rockville, MD 20850, USA. Tel.: 301-427-1490; fax: 301-427-1520

† Center for Outcomes and Evidence Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Department of Health and Human Services Rockville, MD

‡ Assoc. Director, Health Services Research and Development Office of Research and Development Veteran's Health Administration Washington, DC

PII: S0895-4356(08)00170-4

doi:10.1016/j.jclinepi.2008.06.009