Comparative Effectiveness Reviews, systematic reviews of existing research on the effectiveness, comparative effectiveness, and comparative harms of different health care interventions, are intended to provide relevant evidence to inform real-world health care decisions for patients, providers, and policymakers.

An important part of these reviews is to not only synthesize the evidence, but also to identify the gaps in evidence that limited the ability to answer the systematic review questions. As part of a new effort in 2010, AHRQ supports EPCs to work with various stakeholders to further develop and prioritize the future research needed by decisionmakers.

The Future Research Needs Projects are intended to be used by researchers and funders of research to help improve the body of comparative effectiveness evidence that would be useful for decisionmakers. Because this is a new product with no previous established methodology, the EPCs will initially pilot various methods for identifying and prioritizing evidence needs.

Concurrent research on various methodologic issues will complement their experiences and inform eventual guidance on approaches to determine and prioritize future research needs. A working table of contents is presented below.

Comments and suggestions on the Future Research Needs methods papers and the Effective Health Care Program can be made at https://effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov.

Working Table of Contents

Finding Evidence on Ongoing Studies. View final report.

Frameworks for Determining Research Gaps. View final report.

Defining an Optimal Format for Presenting Research Needs. View final report.

Engaging Stakeholders to Define and Prioritize Research Needs. View final report.

Evaluating the Potential Use of Modeling and Value-of-Information Analysis for Future Research Prioritization Within the Evidence-based Practice Center Program. View final report.

Minimal Modeling Approaches to Value of Information Analysis for Health Research. View final report.

Assessing the Impact of AHRQ Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC) Reports on Future Research. View final report.

Framework for Considering Study Designs for Future Research Needs. View final report.

Presentation of Future Research Needs. View final report.

Prioritization Criteria Methodology for Future Research Needs Proposals Within the Effective Health Care Program. View final report.