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 a network of 14 research centers, each of which focuses on a broad therapeutic theme. 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 14 CERTs centers are:

• Clinical and economic issues in hospital settings (University of Chicago, Chicago, IL - David Meltzer, M.D., Ph.D.)
• Consumers and patient adherence (University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and Baylor College of Medicine (Houston CERT), Houston, TX - Maria E. Suarez-Almazor, M.D., Ph.D.)
• Disorders of the heart and blood vessels (Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC - Eric Peterson, M.D., M.S.)
• Disorders of the joints and bones (University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL - Kenneth G. Saag, M.D., M.Sc.)
• Drug interactions, women's health (University of Arizona CERT at The Critical Path Institute (C-Path), Tucson, AZ - Raymond L. Woosley, M.D., Ph.D.)
• Drug use, safety, and effectiveness in managed care (HMO Research Network, Seattle, WA - Richard Platt, M.D., M.Sc.)
• Health information technology (Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA - David Bates, M.D., M.Sc.)
• Infectious diseases (University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA - Brian L. Strom, M.D., M.P.H.)
• Therapeutic medical devices (Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY - Alvin I. Mushlin, M.D., Sc.M.)
• Mental health (Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ - Stephen Crystal, Ph.D.)
• Therapies for older adults and the effects of aging (University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA - Elizabeth A. Chrischilles, Ph.D.)
• Pediatric therapeutics (Cincinnati's Children's Hospital 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.)
• Therapeutics for vulnerable populations (Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN - Wayne A. Ray, Ph.D.)

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