AHCPR Convenes Conference on Translating Evidence Into Practice

Media Advisory Date: June 4, 1997

The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) is convening a conference to discuss national and local efforts to promote evidence-based practice. This is an opportunity for health care professionals, health plans and health purchasers, lawyers, state and local health care officials, researchers, and reporters to explore practical ways to put research into practice.

The conference, entitled "Translating Evidence Into Practice: What Do We Know? What Do We Need?" features two major themes: (1) innovative strategies that work—enhancing health care quality through the use of evidence-based clinical guidelines and other quality improvement tools, and (2) legal and ethical issues that help shape the purchase and delivery of quality health care, and how they contribute to evidence-based practice.

The three-day conference will feature over 50 experts on subjects including medical ethics, the use of science-based evidence in the courts, information systems, the need to protect patient privacy, overcoming barriers to guideline implementation, and the international perspective on guideline implementation.

Confirmed speakers include: David M. Eddy, M.D., Ph.D., Kaiser Permanente: Evidence-based Medicine—What Have We Learned?; Mark Chassin, M.D., M.P.H., Mount Sinai School of Medicine; Medical Ethics: Putting the Patient First; Robert Brook, M.D., Sc.D., RAND: Cost-Quality Interface; Troyen Brennen, M.D., J.D., Harvard University; Medical Malpractice and Guidelines: What Have We Learned?; Lawrence Gostin, J.D., Georgetown University Law Center: Patient Privacy vs. Need for Patient Data.

Where:
Renaissance Washington Hotel, 999 9th Street, NW, Washington, DC

When:
Monday, July 21, 1997 through Wednesday, July 23, 1997

For additional information, contact: AHCPR Public Affairs; Karen Carp, (301) 427-1858 (KCarp@ahrq.gov), Karen Migdail, (301) 427-1855 (KMigdail@ahrq.gov).