MEDTEP Update Archive

Agency for Health Care Policy and Research

Contents

• Overview
• MEDTEP at Work (Spring 1995)
• Project Briefs:
  Acute Pain Management: Operative or Medical Procedures and Trauma. Clinical Practice Guideline (Summer 1994)
  Back Pain Patient Outcomes Assessment Team (BOAT) (Summer 1994)
  Assessing Therapies for Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy and Localized Prostate Cancer (Spring 1995)
  Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia: Diagnosis and Treatment. Clinical Practice Guideline (Spring 1995)
  Cataract in Adults: Management of Functional Impairment. Clinical Practice Guideline (Spring 1995)
  Variations in Cataract Management: Patient and Economic Outcomes (Spring 1995)
  Variations in Physician Practice Style and Outcomes of Care (Summer 1994)
• Focus On: Interactive Video Disks (Summer 1994)

Overview

Finding out what works in health care is critical in an era of limited resources, increasing demand for health care, a rapidly aging population, and soaring costs. Understanding the benefits and risks of available treatments and knowing which treatments result in improved outcomes for patients are essential to providing quality health care.

Congress created the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) in 1989 to improve the quality, effectiveness, and appropriateness of health care and access to that care. Projects in the Medical Treatment Effectiveness Program (MEDTEP) are designed to determine the strategies that are most effective and cost effective for preventing, diagnosing, treating, and managing clinical conditions.

MEDTEP has four essential elements: research, development of data for research, development of clinical practice guidelines, and dissemination of information to health care practitioners, consumers, insurers, employers, policymakers, and others.

An important aspect is disseminating new scientific information about what procedures or services are most effective for specific conditions and populations. AHCPR expects these efforts to help reduce health provider uncertainty, minimize inappropriate variations in practice, and enable patients to become more informed participants in the selection and use of health care resources.

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Internet Citation:

MEDTEP Update. Archive. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/medtep/