Evidence-based Practice Centers

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) created the Evidence-based Practice Centers (EPCs) in 1997 to conduct evidence reports for the Effective Health Care (EHC) Program. In December 2019, the latest 5-year contracts were awarded to 9 EPCs.

The EPCs are housed at universities, medical centers, and research institutions in the United States. The EPCs produce evidence reports on medications, devices, and other health care services for the EHC Program with the goal of helping consumers, health care professionals, and policymakers make informed and evidence-based health care decisions.

Each EPC is made up of medical researchers from a broad range of clinical health and scientific backgrounds. The people who conduct research at the EPCs are medical doctors, pharmacy doctors, psychologists, physical therapists, and other medical specialists. In addition, they are also trained in different types of health research such as epidemiology, health services research, and organizational change research.

All evidence reports are produced in accordance with an established policy on financial and nonfinancial interests (PDF, 405 KB).

Learn more:

• Nominating and selecting topics
• Synthesizing evidence
• Editing and reviewing reports
• Prior Reviewers
• Updating evidence reports

AHRQ's Evidence-based Practice Centers

• Brown University, Center for Evidence-based Medicine, Providence, RI – Thomas Trikalinos, M.D., and Ethan M. Balk, M.D., M.Sc.
• ECRI – Penn Medicine Evidence-based Practice Center, Plymouth Meeting, PA – Jonathan R. Treadwell, Ph.D.
• Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD – Eric B. Bass, M.D., M.P.H., and Karen A. Robinson, Ph.D.
• Kaiser Permanente Evidence-based Practice Center, Portland, OR – Jennifer S. Lin, M.D., M.C.R., FACP, and Elizabeth A. O'Connor, Ph.D.
• Mayo Clinic Evidence-based Practice Center, Rochester, MN – M. Hassan Murad, M.D., M.P.H.
• Minnesota Evidence-based Practice Center, Minneapolis, MN – Mary E. Butler, Ph.D., MBA, and Timothy J. Wilt, M.D., M.P.H.
• Pacific Northwest Evidence-based Practice Center, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR – Roger Chou, M.D.
• RTI-UNC Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC), Chapel Hill, NC – Meera Viswanathan, Ph.D.
• Southern California Evidence-based Practice Center, Los Angeles, CA – Susanne Hempel, Ph.D.