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How RAND Health Care Makes a Difference

RAND Health Care is dedicated to improving the health of all people by improving health care policy and practice in the United States and abroad. The examples below illustrate some of the many ways that RAND has done this by providing health care decisionmakers, practitioners, and communities with objective analysis and actionable solutions. The mix of studies, singular accomplishments, and streams of research exemplify the range, originality, and influence of RAND Health Care’s research and reflect the breadth of our increasingly diversified research agenda.

Explore by topic:

Shaping Policy
Advancing Practice
Improving Health
Designing Methods and Tools That Work

Shaping Policy

Predicting Outcomes of Health Care Reform Proposals
RAND developed the COMPARE microsimulation model to estimate the likely impacts of health reform proposals on costs and coverage. The model assessed and helped shape design choices in the Affordable Care Act and has been used to assess a wide range of proposals, including single payer and public option plans.

Advancing Practice

Inventing Health Care Quality Measurement
In work spanning five decades, RAND health researchers established the scientific basis for defining and measuring the quality of health care delivery. RAND developed reliable measures of health status, which enables physicians to assess the value of care across multiple dimensions of health. RAND also developed measures for the appropriateness of care that are now the basis for quality measurement around the globe.

Improving Health

Improving the Lives of Service Members, Veterans, and Their Families
RAND researchers have conducted studies to help servicemembers, veterans, and their families cope with the aftermath of deployments. A comprehensive evaluation of mental health treatment offered by the Veterans Health Administration found that quality fell short of the agency’s high standards. These findings were used to improve quality of care. And a RAND study on informal caregivers caring for sick and injured servicemembers and veterans informed policies to address caregiver needs.

Designing Methods and Tools That Work

COVID-19 Decision Support Tool
With the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the spring and summer of 2020, state and local policymakers have had to put policies in place quickly, with little evidence to guide them. RAND researchers developed a tool to help state and local officials estimate the effects of distancing and other interventions. The tool combines information from epidemiological and economic models to estimate the effects of social distancing policies on public health and economic outcomes.