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International Efforts to Improve Quality and Efficiency in Health Care

Murray Ross, PhD, vice president, Kaiser Permanente's Institute for Health Policy
Murray Ross, PhD, vice president, Kaiser Permanente’s Institute for Health Policy

Health systems across the world share a common responsibility to improve care. Rising health care costs and a growing drive for better outcomes create a need to spend health care funds efficiently and in accordance with each country’s priorities.

A response to this urgent demand requires, first, an understanding of which technologies and interventions—drugs, devices, diagnostics, and health care services—increase the quality and value of health care and, second, knowledge of policy levers that could encourage health care systems to adopt such technologies.

Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) and Health Technology Assessment (HTA) are important tools used in different ways by countries to achieve these goals.

With support from the Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy and the National Institute for Health Care Management, AcademyHealth researchers have produced a new report, “Improving Quality and Efficiency in Health Care through Comparative Effectiveness Analyses: An International Perspective,” that explores these issues. The report describes how the United States and other high-income countries assess effectiveness of new drugs, devices, procedures, diagnostics, and health care services and coverage decisions based on these assessments. The report also provides an overview of HTA activities in Europe, Canada, and Australia and examines the new public investments in CER in the United States.

The report calls for further engagement by international researchers and stakeholders to promote mutual learning.  You can read the report here.

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