Agency News and Notes

AHRQ launches a new series of advice columns

Carolyn Clancy, M.D., director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), has prepared brief, easy-to-understand advice columns for consumers to help navigate the health care system. The columns will address important issues such as how to recognize high-quality health care; how to be an informed health care consumer; and how to choose a hospital, doctor, and health plan.

Posted on the AHRQ Web site, the columns are designed to help consumers navigate the health care system and make decisions about their health care. The columns will appear bi-weekly on AHRQ's Consumer & Patients Web site at http://www.ahrq.gov/consumer/cc.htm, and will build on AHRQ's ongoing work to help consumers make informed decisions and seek services that are appropriate for them and their families.

To read Dr. Clancy's first column, "Recognizing High-Quality Health Care," go to http://www.ahrq.gov/consumer/cc/cc101607.htm. Like the other columns that will follow, it draws on existing information produced by AHRQ in publication, brochure, or podcast formats.

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