Center for Outcomes and Evidence

Mission Statement

The Center for Outcomes and Evidence (COE) conducts and supports research and assessment of health care practices, technologies, processes, and systems. Specifically, COE:

1. Conducts and supports research, assessments, and demonstrations on safety, quality, effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and other relevant attributes of health care practices, technologies, processes and systems.
2. Facilitates and coordinates the development of infrastructures for the collection, analysis, and synthesis of evidence and data on the safety, effectiveness and quality of health care practices, technologies, processes, and systems.
3. Serves as a center of excellence for methods and measurement development for the conduct and analysis of outcomes research, cost effectiveness analysis, and evidence-based systematic reviews and technology assessments.
4. Serves as a source of evidence based information about therapeutics, technologies, and healthcare practices for clinical and policy decisionmakers.
5. Directs and supports research on and implementation of the appropriate use of therapeutics and medical technologies, including preventing overuse, underuse and adverse effects.
6. Provides an array of tools and products to promote and facilitate evidence-based clinical practices and health care decisionmaking.
7. Fosters partnerships with health care providers, insurers, employers and consumers to bring about sustainable systemic change to implement evidence-based practices and improve patient outcomes and quality of care.
8. Represents the Agency in meetings with experts and organizations in the areas of outcomes research and evidence-based medicine and organizes conferences on these topics.

COE was formerly the Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research and the Center for Practice and Technology Assessment.

Current as of April 2005

Internet Citation:

Mission Statement: Center for Outcomes and Evidence. April 2005. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/about/coe/