In collaboration with clinicians at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), RAND Heath staff developed the RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method to synthesize the scientific literature and expert opinion on health care topics.
This method, which has become a leading paradigm for quality assessment in medicine, is a mechanism for reaching formal agreement about how science should be interpreted in the real world. It makes it possible to set rules for determining best practices-guidelines that, when implemented, increase the value of health care dollars spent because they increase the probability that the care delivered will contribute to improved health of the population.
