About CERTs

The Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics (CERTs) program is a national initiative to increase awareness of the benefits and harms of new, existing, or combined uses of therapeutics (drugs, medical devices, and biological products) through education and research. The CERTs program is comprised of a network of 6 research centers, each of which focuses on a broad therapeutic theme, and the CERTs Scientific Forum. The program is funded and run as a cooperative agreement by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), in consultation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The therapeutic themes and the location of the 6 CERTs centers are:

• Health information technology (Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA - David Bates, M.D., M.Sc)
• Therapies for heart and blood vessel disorders (Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC- Eric Peterson, M.D., M.S.)
• Mental health therapeutics (Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ - Stephen Crystal, Ph.D.)
• Musculoskeletal disorders (University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL - Kenneth G. Saag, M.D., M.Sc.)
• Pediatric therapeutics (Cincinnati Hospital Children's Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH - Carole Lannon, M.D., M.P.H.)
• Tools for optimizing prescribing (University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL - Bruce L. Lambert, Ph.D.)

More information about the CERTs program can be found at http://www.certs.hhs.gov/centers/centers.htm.