About the Eisenberg Center

The John M. Eisenberg Center for Clinical Decisions and Communications Science translates comparative effectiveness reviews and research reports created by the Effective Health Care Program into short, easy-to-read guides and tools that can be used by three different groups of people:

• Consumers: Patients, caregivers, and others who use health care services
• Clinicians: Medical doctors and other health professionals who provide care to patients
• Policymakers: People involved in creating rules and regulations that influence how health care is provided

Researchers from an Evidence-based Practice Center identify the most important medical research on tests or treatments for different kinds of health problems. The Eisenberg Center translates the research findings into plain language, and then creates a variety of products, ranging from summary guides to decision aids and other materials. These materials can then be used by physicians, patients, and policymakers as they make important medical and policy decisions.

The Eisenberg Center is located at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and is directed by C. Michael Fordis, Jr., M.D.

Eisenberg Center Conference Series

The Eisenberg Center convenes scientific meetings for the discussion of state-of-the-art concepts in communication and medical decisionmaking. Experts in health communication, health literacy, shared decisionmaking, and related fields come together to produce high quality, scholarly white papers (and stakeholder commentaries) that offer insight into how state-of-the-art advances in medical science can be transformed into state-of-the-art clinical decision making and improved health communication.

Proceedings from these conferences can be accessed by clicking on the titles below.

Eisenberg Center Conference Series 2009: Translating Information Into Action: Improving Quality of Care Through Interactive Media (September 2009) These presentations are available in a streaming video and slide format. A close captions viewing option is also available. The papers presented at the conference will be peer reviewed and submitted for publication at a later date. As a result, they may differ from these presentations.

Eisenberg Center Conference Series 2006: Communicating Harms and Benefits of Prescription Drugs to Health Care Consumers (September 2006) Summaries of these presentations are available in Microsoft PowerPoint format. The research papers were published in the academic journal Medical Decision Making.

For help viewing these proceedings, please see the Viewers, Players, and Plug-ins page.