Putting Evidence Into Practice: Articles from "Health Affairs"

This edition of Health Affairs, sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), provides a variety of perspectives on the challenges and potential rewards of building and using a stronger evidence base for health care decisions.

Articles in this edition review the history and context of evidence-based decisionmaking; they describe the challenges of developing the most relevant evidence for different clinical and policy decisions. They discuss obstacles and opportunities for practitioners and policymakers seeking to implement evidence-based decisions.

Accessibility Notice: Each article is linked to a PDF file. These files are not resident on a Government Web site and do not comply with the requirements for Federal information resources under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Copyright © 2005, Health Affairs January-February 2005 (1). Linked with permission. Institutions with subscriptions to this journal should be able to access the full text of articles. Individuals without subscriptions may only be able to access the abstracts.

Contents

From the Editor

The New Imperative: Producing Better Evidence

History and Context

PROLOGUE: Evidence-Based Medicine: History and Context
Evidence-Based Medicine: A Unified Approach, David M. Eddy
The Promises and Pitfalls of Evidence-Based Medicine, Stefan Timmermans and Aaron Mauck
Evidence, Politics, and Technological Change, Annetine C. Gelijns, Lawrence D. Brown, Corey Magnell, Elettra Ronchi, and Alan J.Moskowitz

Case Studies

PROLOGUE: Evidence-Based Medicine Case Studies
Evidence-Based Medicine and Policy: The Case of the Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator, Mark A. Hlatky, Gillian D. Sanders, and Douglas K. Owens
PERSPECTIVE: Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators: An Excellent Case Study, Marshall S. Stanton
Evidence, Economics, and Emphysema: Medicare's Long Journey with Lung Volume Reduction Surgery, Scott D. Ramsey and Sean D. Sullivan
Surrogate Endpoints and FDA's Accelerated Approval Process, Thomas R. Fleming

Evaluating Evidence

PROLOGUE: Evaluating Evidence
Evidence Based? Caveat Emptor!, Earl P. Steinberg and Bryan R. Luce
When Is Evidence Sufficient?, Karl Claxton, Joshua T. Cohen, and Peter J. Neumann
Making Policy When the Evidence Is in Dispute, David Atkins, Joanna Siegel, and Jean Slutsky
Evidence of Evidence-Based Health Policy: The Politics of Systematic Reviews in Coverage Decisions, Daniel M. Fox
PERSPECTIVE: Using Evidence Reports: Progress and Challenges In Evidence-Based Decision Making, Mark Helfand
PERSPECTIVE: Comparative Effectiveness: Asking the Right Questions, Choosing the Right Method, Steven M. Teutsch, Marc L. Berger, and Milton C.Weinstein
PERSPECTIVE: Evidence-Based Medicine in the United States—De Rigueur or Dream Deferred? Dan Mendelson and Tanisha V. Carino

Implementing Evidence

PROLOGUE: Implementing Evidence
Evidence-Based Quality Improvement: The State of the Science, Kaveh G. Shojania and Jeremy M. Grimshaw
Evidence-Based Decision Making: Global Evidence, Local Decisions, Carolyn M. Clancy and Kelly Cronin
Evidence-Based Practice as Mental Health Policy: Three Controversies and a Caveat, Sandra J. Tanenbaum
PERSPECTIVE: Evidence-Based Guidelines as a Foundation for Performance Incentives, Alan M. Garber
PERSPECTIVE: A Clinical Research Strategy To Support Shared Decision Making, Sean R. Tunis