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Research Triangle Institute and University of North Carolina at Chapel

Contact information and Web sites for the RTI International-University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Evidence-based Practice Center.

Evidence-based Practice Center


Profile

Research Triangle Institute, in collaboration with the five health professions schools and the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will operate the RTI International*-University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (RTI-UNC) Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC) for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The RTI-UNC EPC is headquartered at the North Carolina campus of Research Triangle Institute, a short distance from the UNC-Chapel Hill campus.

The RTI-UNC EPC will:

  • Foster the development and dissemination of systematically developed, authoritative evidence reports (or technology assessments) on critical health care topics affecting all population groups.
  • Work with science partners in the public and private sector, which will use these reports to improve clinical practice; help clinicians, patients and their families, payers and purchasers, and policymakers and to make better decisions and choices of effective and appropriate health care technologies; and improve patient and population health and well-being.
  • Enhance methodologies for evidence reports and technology assessments.
  • Determine the effects of such materials on health care practices and patient outcomes.

Capabilities

The RTI-UNC EPC brings extensive assets from five significant clinical and public health areas: dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and public health. It also combines expertise in health services research and policy analysis with depth of technical skills in all forms of quantitative, qualitative, and social sciences methodology. The RTI-UNC Center can marshall appropriate and appreciable resources to study issues on a full range of clinical topics, from prevention and screening through diagnostic testing to therapy, rehabilitation, counseling, and palliative care.

The EPC is prepared to:

  • Carry out rigorous review and critique of the clinical and biomedical research literature in a timely and efficient way.
  • Conduct all forms of relevant analysis (such as meta-analysis or cost-effectiveness analysis).
  • Produce useful materials for and provide technical assistance to all interested parties and provider, patient, and consumer groups.
  • Perform small or large projects to evaluate the use, implementation, and impact of evidence reports and similar tools and products on the delivery, costs, quality, and outcomes of health care in the United States and elsewhere.

The RTI-UNC Center can call on up to 450 clinical, substantive, and methodologic experts for studies and activities done for the AHRQ evidence-based practice program, for other public sector agencies at both the Federal and State levels, and for an array of private sector organizations such as professional societies and associations, patient and consumer groups, managed care organizations and insurers, and pharmaceutical firms.

Its Co-Directors are Kathleen Lohr, Ph.D., of RTI and Timothy S. Carey, M.D., M.P.H., of the Sheps Center at UNC-CH. Key members of the UNC-CH clinical and public health faculty who serve on a coordinating committee for UNC-CH are Abraham Hartzema, Ph.D., Pharm.D. (School of Pharmacy), Kerry Kilpatrick, Ph.D. (School of Public Health); Diane Kjervik, R.N., J.D., F.A.A.N. (School of Nursing), and Daniel Shugars, D.D.S., Ph.D., M.P.H. (School of Dentistry). Core members of the RTI oversight team include Judith Lessler, Ph.D. (Statistical Research Division), Allen Miedema, Ph.D. (Center for Economics Research), and George Theologus, Ph.D. (Health and Social Policy Division).

Collaboration

The RTI-UNC Center has numerous collaborators representing important constituencies, populations, and perspectives on health care. An initial list includes: the American Pharmaceutical Association; American Society of Health-System Pharmacists; Center for Clinical Quality Evaluation; Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Durham VAMC); Center for Quality of Care Research and Education at Harvard; IMCARE (the Internal Medicine Center to Advance Research and Education); Kaiser Foundation Hospitals; Morehouse University Medical Treatment Effectiveness Center; Paralyzed Veterans of America; The Permanente Medical Group Research Institute, and Urban Health Institute at Harlem Hospital Center and Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Additional Information

Access the RTI-UNC EPC Home Page at: http://www.rti.org/page.cfm?objectid=4FA3323C-51CA-4DFE-A3E0246F90D5FA4B

Or contact:

Meera Viswanathan, Ph.D.
Director, RTI-UNC Evidence-based Practice Center
RTI International
3040 Cornwallis Road
P.O. Box 12194
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2194
Phone: (919) 316-3930
Fax: (919) 541-7384
E-mail: viswanathan@rti.org

Timothy S. Carey, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor of Medicine
Director, Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research
Deputy Director, UNC Program on Health Outcomes
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
725 Airport Road, Campus Box 7590
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7590
Phone: (919) 966-7101
Fax: (919) 966-5764
E-mail: tim_carey@unc.edu

*RTI International is a tradename of Research Triangle Institute.


Internet Citation:

RTI International-University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (RTI-UNC), Evidence-based Practice Center. Profile, October 2007. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. https://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/epc/rti-unc.htm


Current as of October 2007
Internet Citation: Research Triangle Institute and University of North Carolina at Chapel. October 2007. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://archive.ahrq.gov/research/findings/evidence-based-reports/centers/rti-unc.html

 

The information on this page is archived and provided for reference purposes only.

 

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