Patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) is an area that has seen increased focus from research agencies and other government entities. Also known as comparative effectiveness research, PCOR is the focus of AHRQ's Effective Health Care (EHC) program, which has the mission of providing health care decisionmakers (e.g., patients, health care providers, purchasers, and policymakers) with recent evidence-based information about the harms, benefits, and effectiveness of various treatment options by comparing medical devices, surgeries, tests, drugs, or ways to deliver health care.
The EHC program was created in response to Section 1013 of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 and became the first federal program to conduct PCOR and disseminate those findings to the public. AHRQ works with researchers, academic organizations, and research centers through the EHC program on work relating to methods, training, and dissemination of products to a variety of stakeholders to help spread awareness and knowledge about PCOR. It is important for AHRQ to be able to measure the effectiveness of these products, which include training modules and publications, specifically around how they are affecting health care professionals' understanding, awareness, and use of PCOR and its related concepts. It is also important for AHRQ to be able to identify ways to improve how this information is being disseminated to the medical community.
The Continuing Education for Comparative Effectiveness Research Project is designed to provide online continuing education materials that inform physicians and other health care providers about patient-centered health research from the EHC Program, specifically comparative effectiveness research reports, and other government-funded comparative clinical effectiveness research. Online multimedia continuing education modules based on the Effective Health Care Program http://www.effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/tools-and-resources/cmece-activities/ comparative effectiveness research reports will be planned, developed, disseminated, and promoted. In addition, data will be collected on the modules to assess their effectiveness and impact.
This study is being conducted by AHRQ through its contractor, Hayes Inc. (Hayes) and Hayes' subcontractors, Deloitte Consulting LLP (Deloitte), pursuant to AHRQ's statutory authority to support the agency's dissemination of comparative clinical effectiveness research findings. 42 U.S.C. 299b-37(a)-(c).
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