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"Expanding the Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics Programallows AHRQ to build a strong evidence base that consumers, clinicians, andothers can use to make critical treatment decisions about therapeutic productsand interventions," said AHRQ Director Carolyn M. Clancy, M.D. "The increasednumber and breadth of expertise in the CERTs will broaden the range ofknowledge to help the health care system make measurable improvements in thequality and safety of medications and other treatments and health care."
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The new AHRQ-funded CERTs Coordinating Center is Kaiser Permanente'sCenter for Health Research in Portland, Ore. In addition to assuminginfrastructure and leadership support for the CERTs National SteeringCommittee and research centers, the Center for Health Research will expand theprogram's ability to translate research findings through collaborations withother research networks, including the National Institutes of Health Roadmap'sClinical Trials Initiative, the NIH Clinical and Translational Science Awards,and AHRQ's Effective Healthcare Program.
In addition to the new coordinating center, there are now 14 CERTs programcenters in all. The four new centers receiving first-time funding are:
Six previously funded CERTs research centers won new funding awards.They are: Duke University (therapies for disorders of the heart and bloodvessels); Harvard Pilgrim Health Care on behalf of the HMO Research Network(drug use, safety, and effectiveness in defined populations cared for byhealth plans); University of Alabama at Birmingham (therapies for disorders ofthe joints and bones); The Arizona CERT at The Critical Path Institute(potentially harmful drug interactions, particularly in women); University ofPennsylvania (therapies for infectious diseases); and Vanderbilt University(prescription drug use in a Medicaid population).
The remaining four centers, which received funding in 2006, are: MDAnderson, Texas (risk and health communication; patient, consumer, andprofessional education); Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (mentalhealth therapies); the University of Iowa (improving elderly care, boththerapeutics and care management); and the Weill Medical College of CornellUniversity, New York (therapeutic medical devices).
The CERTs program, which AHRQ administers in partnership with the FDA, wasoriginally authorized by Congress in 1997 to examine the benefits, risks, andcost-effectiveness of therapeutic products; educate patients, consumers,doctors, pharmacists, and other clinical personnel; and improve quality ofcare while reducing unnecessary costs by increasing appropriate use oftherapeutics and preventing adverse effects and their medical consequences.Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Contact: AHRQ Public Affairs-- Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, which will focus is how health information technology can improve the safe use of medications -- The University of Illinois at Chicago, which will focus is how reinvigorating formularies promote best medication uses -- Cincinnati's Children's Hospital Medical Center, which will focus is improving pediatric patient care through projects, such as how children's metabolism may affect drug effectiveness and safety; and -- The University of Chicago which will focus is hospital use of medications and other therapeutics and their clinical and economic implications.
SOURCE Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
