The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) appropriated $1.1 billion for comparative effectiveness research (CER), of which $300 million was made available to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The goal of CER is to improve patient outcomes by providing clinicians and patients the information they need to choose between preventive and diagnostic treatments, and other health care options to identify the options that best fit an individual patient's needs and preferences. The EHC Program was created in response to Section 1013 of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (MMA) of 2003.
To better inform comparative effectiveness research investments at the EHC Program, AHRQ used some of the ARRA funds to develop a horizon scanning system to identify and monitor emerging health care technologies and innovations. While horizon scanning systems exist in other countries, these systems do not take into account the unique political, regulatory, cultural, and economic context of the U.S. health care system. To meet this need, the AHRQ Healthcare Horizon Scanning System was implemented in November 2010. The AHRQ Healthcare Horizon Scanning System provides a systematic process to identify and monitor target technologies and innovations in health care and to create an inventory of target technologies that have the highest potential for impact on clinical care, the health care system, patient outcomes, and costs. It is also a tool for the public to identify and find information on new health care technologies and interventions. Additionally, the AHRQ Healthcare Horizon Scanning System serves as a resource for those involved in decision making about adoption, implementation, and coverage of new health care interventions.
To fulfill its purpose, the AHRQ Healthcare Horizon Scanning System performs three functions: (1) identification and prioritization of interventions in late phase development for tracking and monitoring; (2) monitoring of target interventions through the development of detailed information on interventions in late phase development; and (3) assessment of potential impact of target interventions through the gathering and synthesizing the perspectives of experts from various areas of the health care community about the potential impact those target interventions may have on the health care system, clinical care, patient outcomes, and health care costs.
As the first and only U.S. horizon scanning system, it is important to understand whether the AHRQ Healthcare Horizon Scanning System is implementing its functions effectively. This evaluation is also essential to determining whether the AHRQ Healthcare Horizon Scanning System is meeting the needs of patients, clinicians, private industry, and policymakers and how it can be improved to better meet those needs. The evaluation will address the following research questions:
1. How successfully did the AHRQ Healthcare Horizon Scanning System identify and prioritize interventions for monitoring?
2. How successfully did the AHRQ Healthcare Horizon Scanning System monitor the selected target interventions?
3. How accurately did the AHRQ Healthcare Horizon Scanning System assess the potential impact of the interventions?
4. How can the processes for identification, prioritization, monitoring, and assessment of potential impact of the interventions be improved?
US Code:
42 USC 299
Name of Law: Healthcare Research and Quality Act of 1999
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