President Obama this week offered a detailed blueprint of his plan for health care reform. A significant component of the proposed overhaul is consideration of quality, value and cost of care. This involves continued and increased research on the outcomes and effectiveness of different drugs, therapies and procedures. Known as comparative effectiveness research, this approach directly compares existing health care interventions to determine which procedures work best for various patient populations — and which pose the greatest benefits and harms.
Tomorrow morning, Wednesday, Feb. 24, the Baker Institute will host a breakfast discussion assessing the impact of comparative effectiveness research on health care in the United States. Carolyn Clancy, the director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and Sheldon Greenfield, the Donald Bren Professor of Medicine and the executive director of the Center for Health Policy Research at the University of California at Irvine, will discuss how comparative effectiveness research measures the outcomes and impact of different drugs, therapies and procedures.
The discussion is part of the Medicine, Research and Society Public Policy Issues Series, a joint project between the Baker Institute Science and Technology Policy Program and the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Additional sponsors for this event include the Baker Institute Health Policy Forum and the Rice University Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering.
There are a limited number of seats open to the public for this event. If you are interested in attending, please visit the Baker Institute Web site for RSVP and event information. There will also be a live webcast of the event.