Evidence-based health practice applies the scientific method to use the best available evidence—from physical exams, diagnostic reviews, medical research, and known risks and benefits of treatment options—when making medical decisions. RAND has investigated the impact of adopting evidence-based health practices on patient care and health care policies, and the greater implications of using a national quality measurement and reporting system.
Journal Article
The objective of this study was to describe our experience in reducing quality-of-care disparities among Puerto Rican children with asthma by adapting 2 existing evidence-based asthma interventions.
Journal Article
This paper describes the first phase of a three-phase effort to conduct an evidence-based assessment of patient safety strategies. The paper describes a framework for reviewing existing studies and prospectively evaluating new studies of the implementation of patient safety practices.
Journal Article
Recent developments in health reform related to the passage of the Affordable Care Act and ensuing regulations encourage delivery systems to engage in shared decision making, in which patients and providers together make health care decisions that are informed by medical evidence and tailored to the specific characteristics and values of the patient.
Research Brief
Providers can dramatically improve American health care by focusing on value instead of volume, eliminating wasteful and inappropriate care, applying the best available evidence to their practices, and enhancing patient safety.
Content
In its second term, the Obama Administration can restrain further health care spending growth—without compromising quality—by employing four broad strategies: fostering efficient and accountable providers, engaging and empowering consumers, promoting population health, and facilitating high-value innovation.
Report
An analysis of factors that impede the translation of comparative effectiveness research (CER) into clinical practice and those that facilitate it, based on case studies of five recent CER studies.
News Release
Comparative effectiveness research conducted over the past decade has had a limited impact on the way medical care is delivered, but many opportunities exist to help doctors and others in the medical system translate such research into better patient care.
Journal Article
Comparative effectiveness research conducted over the past decade has had a limited impact on the way medical care is delivered, but many opportunities exist to help doctors and others in the medical system translate such research into better patient care.
Journal Article
Homeless veterans are a vulnerable population, with high mortality and morbidity rates. Evidence-based practices for homelessness have been challenging to implement.
Journal Article
Clinical practice guidelines are one of the foundations of efforts to improve healthcare.
Journal Article
Clinical practice guidelines are one of the foundations of efforts to improve health care.
Journal Article
This study discusses the target audience(s) for guidelines, identifying topics for guidelines, guideline group composition and the processes by which guideline groups function, and managing conflicts of interest in guideline development.
Commentary
Many organizations that we have worked with indicate that this approach has helped improve reporting and communication both within and external to their organization, writes Sarah Hunter.
Report
Shares the results of Safe Start Promising Approaches, a community-based initiative that implemented and evaluated promising and evidence-based programs to prevent and reduce the impact of children's exposure to violence in 15 U.S. program sites.
Journal Article
Complementary alternative medicine (CAM) and integrative medicine (IM) represent non-traditional approaches to health care practice that have become increasingly popular in the United States and throughout the world.
Journal Article
Comparative effectiveness reviews need to be regularly updated as new evidence is produced. Lack of attention to updating may lead to outdated and sometimes misleading conclusions that compromise health care and policy decisions.
Research Brief
RAND's evaluation of Safe Start Promising Approaches identified program successes and challenges in implementing programs for children exposed to violence. The evaluation results, though largely inconclusive, can inform similar efforts going forward.
Project
How does policy support science and how does science in turn support policy? What works in terms of funding science and in maximizing academic, social and economic 'payback' from investment in science? RAND Europe is a leader in understanding the returns from different kinds of investment in science and research.
Project
How does policy support science and how does science in turn support policy? What works in terms of funding science and in maximizing academic, social and economic 'payback' from investment in science? RAND Europe is a leader in understanding the returns from different kinds of investment in science and research.
RAND® is a registered trademark. Copyright © 1994-2013 RAND Corporation.