Community Forum

The goal of comparative effectiveness research, which compares drugs, medical devices, tests, surgeries, or ways to deliver health care, is to provide information that helps end users – patients, clinicians and payers- understand what treatments work best and how their risks compare, while allowing for choices for each individual patient. Engaging stakeholders to assist in the identification, prioritization, development, translation and dissemination of research ensures that the evidence developed addresses their needs.

In an effort to develop and demonstrate mechanisms to engage both members of the general public and stakeholders in research activities, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) funded the Community Forum initiative under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). This initiative provides an unprecedented opportunity to improve the science of civic and stakeholder engagement in this type of research and will help ensure clinical research is more relevant to end users.

This project is led by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) – a Washington, DC-based behavioral and social science research firm. Over the 3-year project, the Center for Medical Technology Policy will assist in supporting stakeholder engagement activities including:

  1. Support of the AHRQ Effective Health Care (EHC) Stakeholder Group as it addresses broad issues related to CER and the use of evidence by patients, clinicians, and policymakers.
  2. Support for stakeholder input to all parts of the EHC Program. The initiative will develop technical infrastructure, tools, and educational supports needed by various AHRQ programs—the DEcIDE Research Network, the Evidence-based Practice Centers Program, and others—to obtain input from stakeholders.
  3. Development of a strategic plan for stakeholder involvement in the EHC Program. The Community Forum will base the plan on a review of innovative practices for stakeholder engagement and an assessment of current EHC Program efforts.

For more information, contact Ellen Tambor.