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Comparative Effectiveness Research: International Experiences and Implications for the United States, by Kalipso Chalkidou, MD, PhD and Gerard Anderson, PhD, July 2009.  This report examines how comparative effectiveness programs operate in other countries and offer lessons for U.S. policymakers based on their analysis.  It is part of a three year initiative to expand senior health policy leaders' knowledge of health systems and delivery innovations in other industrialized countries, and to promote the use of this knowledge to advance system improvements in the U.S.  Published by AcademyHealth with support from NIHCM Foundation and the Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy.

Capturing Value: Increasing Efficiency in Healthcare, NIHCM Foundation, March 2006. This Meeting Brief was prepared following a meeting hosted by NIHCM Foundation on the topic of national variations in health care outcomes. A small group of health policy thought leaders were invited to discuss ways to change the efficiency equation- the ratio of spending to outcomes. Dr. Elliott Fisher of Dartmouth University and Dr. Arnold Milstein of Pacific Group on Health and Mercer Health and Benefits, made presentations and co-moderated the discussion.  John Birge of the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business also raised important issues related to system re-engineering.

Accelerating Quality Improvement in Health Care: Strategies to Speed the Diffusion of Evidence-Based Innovations, NIHCM Foundation, January 2004, 27pp. This proceedings report is derived from a conference held in Washington D.C. on January 27-28, 2003. It explores why so many medical and health care innovations, including those to improve the quality of care, are too slowly adopted by doctors and hospitals and other heath care facilities, and what can be done to speed the diffusion of evidence-based innovations.

Technology and Quality: Considerations for Adoption and Diffusion, The Health Technology Center, January 2003, 20 pp. This document is an annotated literature review prepared for a NIHCM Foundation conference on Accelerating Quality Improvement in Health Care: Strategies to Speed the Diffusion of Evidence-Based Innovations. This document is divided into the following categories: Quality, Technology, and Public Policy; Regulation and Approval; Technology Assessment; Coverage and Reimbursement; Organizational Implementation - Drivers and Barriers to Adoption; Physician Acceptance and Utilization; Clinical Process; and Patient and Consumer experience.

Medical Technology, Innovation, and the Nature of Medical Progress, Daniel Callahan, Ph.D., The Hastings Center, January 2003, 18 pp. This document is a paper prepared for Accelerating Quality Improvement in Health Care: Strategies to Speed the Diffusion of Evidence-Based Innovations. The paper argues that excessive spending on health care technology translates into sub-optimal spending on prevention, public health, and expansion of health insurance coverage. Some technologies appear to deliver poor value as well, the paper argues.

Complexity and the Adoption of Innovation in Health Care, Paul Plsek, Paul E. Plsek and Associates, Inc., January 2003, 18 pp. This document is a paper prepared for Accelerating Quality Improvement in Health Care: Strategies to Speed the Diffusion of Evidence-Based Innovations. This paper examines what it means to say that health care is complex and how that complexity affects the generation and spread of process innovations.

The "Tipping Point" and Health Care Innovations: Advancing the Adoption of Beneficial Technologies, Molly Joel Coye, M.D., M.P.H., Wade M. Aubry, M.D., Wil Yu, The Health Technology Center, January 2003, 18 pp. This document is a paper prepared for Accelerating Quality Improvement in Health Care: Strategies to Speed the Diffusion of Evidence-Based Innovations. The paper examines ways to speed the diffusion of evidence-based technologies.

Expert Voices: Paying Doctors, Paying doctors is now very complex, but a better way may be emerging that promotes higher quality care. By Jamie C. Robinson, Ph.D., professor of health economics, University of California, Berkeley, July 2001

Improving Quality of Care for Children - Action Brief 3 (Aug. 1999)

Making Coverage Decisions About Emerging Technologies (February 1999)

The Role of Government in Health Care Quality, 1998. The quality of American health care, and how best to improve it in a managed care environment, is a major concern. In particular, there is much discussion about what role government should play. NIHCM Foundation conducted a series of seminars and meetings to promote a constructive public-private dialogue on this important issue by bringing together policy makers and experts with a variety of perspectives.

Assuring Quality of Care for Children in Medicaid: EPSDT in a Time of Changing Policy, National Institute for Health Care Management, April 1996, 37 pp. This paper is the product of an October 1995 meeting in which representatives from the U.S. Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), state Medicaid agencies and health plans discussed some of the problems experienced in implementing managed care programs as well as effective managed care strategies that provide high-quality EPSDT services to children. Among the concerns voiced were the difficulties involved with balancing tight budgets, vague requirements, lack of specific data on EPSDT and states' desire for greater flexibility in program design.

Medical Necessity Policy Brief, Agency for Health Care Policy and Research and National Institute for Health Care Managment, April 1995, 16 pp.