New Research Methodology Symposium

As part of its continuing effort to refine the research methodology process for the generation of new effectiveness and comparative effectiveness evidence, AHRQ hosted an invitational symposium on Potential Methods of Conducting Comparative Effectiveness Research at the AHRQ Conference Center, Rockville, MD on June 1-2, 2009. This symposium provided a forum for scholarly deliberation on new and emerging research methods. Real-time access to the symposium was provided via internet (WebEx) broadcast. The symposium was sponsored by AHRQ’s Effective Health Care program, through its DEcIDE research network.

Day one started with brief comments on the role of AHRQ in advancing methods for CER, discussing the challenges for the comparative effectiveness agenda and the future directions of CE Research. These comments were followed by a day-long session on Optimizing Clinical Heterogeneity and Longitudinal Outcomes: The Role of Study Design and Data Collection Methods.

The morning session on day two focused on Optimizing Clinical Heterogeneity and Longitudinal Outcomes: The Role of Statistical Techniques and Analytic Models. The afternoon session covered topics on Comparative Effectiveness Research Methods: Policy and Practice Applications and Implications.

Proceedings from the symposium will be published in 2010 as an open access journal supplement, and on AHRQ’s website.