About CERTs

Annual Report Year 5

AHRQ Letter | Steering Committee Letter | Introduction | CERTs Progress | Certs Program Resources | Certs Parnerships and Collaborations | Conclusion | The CERTs Organization | Principles of CERTs Public-Private Partnerships | Peer-Reviewed Publications

Introduction

The Centers for Education & Research on Therapeutics (CERTs) program was created to investigate and research specific areas of therapeutics, and to use this knowledge to educate consumers, health care providers, and policymakers about the risks and benefits of such therapies. The term "therapeutics" refers to the prevention and treatment of illness and disease with remedies such as drugs, medical devices, and biological products.

The CERTs were established in 1999 by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in consultation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The program is administered as a cooperative agreement and receives funds from both public and private sources, with AHRQ providing core financial support.

The CERTs consist of a network of research centers, a coordinating center, a steering committee, and numerous partnerships with public and private organizations dedicated to improving the quality and safety of therapeutics. The overarching goals of CERTs research projects are to advance knowledge; inform health care providers, patients, and policymakers about that knowledge; and improve aspects of the health care system related to therapeutics.

CERTs research projects are diverse and represent a wide breadth of areas. For example, projects in this report include examining patterns of use for asthma drugs; exploring the role of nutrition in preventing autoimmune diseases; preventing harmful drug interactions; and establishing better guidelines for managing common diseases such as arthritis and gout.

This report highlights a number of CERTs research and educational projects completed in the past year. It also includes some of the projects currently in progress and in the planning stages. The extent of the CERTs projects offers the public a sense of the challenges and opportunities facing health researchers related to the use of therapeutics.

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