Center Mission

The mission of the Center for Health Care Research and Policy is to:  (1) improve the health of the public by conducting research that examines access to health care, increases the quality of health care services, and informs health policy and practice; and (2) lead educational programs that promote these goals.

Center News
Publications, Progress Report , Progress Report Summary

Better Health’s New England Journal of Medicine Manuscript Recognized as High Impact Publication by the American Medical Informatics Association During the Year in Review session at the AMIA Symposium, on Tuesday October 25, 2011 in Washington, D.C., “Electronic health records and the quality of diabetes care” was recognized among 2011’s high impact publications in two categories: Computerized Clinical Decision Support and Practice of Informatics http://faculty.washington.edu/dmasys/YearInReview/2011index.html

Observational Study Suggests that ARBs may be a better choice than ACE-inhibitors in Certain Elderly Heart Failure Patients A team of researchers, including Center faculty member Thomas E. Love, Ph.D., reported important differences in the ways in which various heart failure drugs appear to work, depending on whether the patient has systolic or diastolic heart failure. A Reuters Health report on the study, which suggests that angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) may have an edge in some elderly heart failure patients over ACE-inhibitors, may be found at http://www.thedoctorschannel.com/go/reuters/4765.html

MetroHealth/CWRU-led Research Team Awarded $2.0 Million Grant to Create Free Health Risk Appraisal Tool - Tool will be shared with primary care practices throughout the U.S Half of the deaths before age 65 can be attributed to lifestyle factors. Determining what factors are under the control of the individual and which may be impacted by social or medical interventions may help reduce those deaths. A Health Risk Appraisal (HRA) can be an important tool in that assessment, but currently an inexpensive, easy-to-use version does not exist. Researchers at the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) Center for Health Care Research and Policy at MetroHealth have just received a 4-year $1.95 million grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to change that. The researchers will work to create a free, technologically-updated tool that will be shared with primary care practices throughout the United States.   > Read more.   (posted 10/2011)

Federal Investment in Electronic Health Records Likely to Reap Returns in Quality of Care Better Health Greater Cleveland’s findings that compared achievement and improvement of its EHR-based and paper-based practices in diabetes care were published in a Special Article in the September 1st issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, reporting that patients in EHR practices achieved better and improved faster than those in paper practices. Co-authors of the publication include Center faculty members Randall Cebul, MD and Thomas Love, PhD, along with Drs. Anil Jain (Cleveland Clinic at the time the work was conducted) and Christopher Hebert (Kaiser Permanente-Ohio). Widespread media coverage has recognized the importance of this work in supporting federal initiatives to promote meaningful use of EHRs, especially in the context of quality improvement alliances such as Better Health’s. As Dr. Carolyn Clancy, director of the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, commented: “The results of this study support both the value of electronic health records and community-based partnerships to improve quality of care.”(posted 9/2011)

The Shopping Problem and the Cost and Quality of Health Insurance In the August 2011 issue of the American Economic Review, Center faculty members Mark Votruba, Randy Cebul, and Jim Rebitzer (formerly Chair of Economics at CWRU’s Weatherhead School of Management, now at Boston University), along with Professor Lowell Taylor at Carnegie Mellon, identified “search frictions” (aka the “shopping problem”) in obtaining health insurance as both costly and a source of potentially poorer quality health care – especially for small businesses. The authors document the relevance of this problem to high insurance turnover rates and discuss how this can affect inadequate insurer investments in preventive services and chronic illness care. Whether federally mandated health insurance exchanges can help fix these problems is an open question. According to Rebitzer, “In theory, they should, as long as the exchanges are designed so that shoppers can easily evaluate the value they should expect for the prices of different plans. We will know that the exchanges are successful if turnover rates and marketing expenses decrease.” The work already is being discussed in policy circles (article 1, article 2, article 3, article 4). (posted 9/2011)

Cleveland Hosts International Conference on Health Policy Statistics The Ninth International Conference on Health Policy Statistics was held at the Cleveland Ritz-Carlton on October 5-7, 2011. Center faculty member Thomas E. Love, PhD and James O`Malley from Harvard Medical School chaired the event, which was attended by more than 200 statisticians and others interested in advancing methods to improve health care. Plenary speakers included Dr. Steven Nissen (Cleveland Clinic) and Dr. Arlene Ash (University of Massachusetts,) and the program also featured contributions by Center faculty members Dr. Randall Cebul and Dr. Irene Katzan. Program details may be found at http://www.amstat.org/meetings/ichps/2011/index.cfm?fuseaction=main

David Kaelber and MetroHealth Receive National Health Informatics Awards The Association of Medical Directors of Information Services (AMDIS) has selected Center Senior Scholar David Kaelber, MD, PhD, MPH, Chief Medical Informatics Officer of the MetroHealth System and the MetroHealth System overall for 2011 AMDIS Awards. AMDIS Awards salute excellence and outstanding achievement in applied medical informatics. The MetroHealth System was the only award winner to receive both individual and healthcare system awards. Only two healthcare system awards were awarded nationally in 2011. Additional information about AMIDS awards can be found at http://www.modernhealthcare.com and http://www.amdis.org.(posted 6/2011)

Center Publication Cites Bias in Widely Used Health Survey Health policymakers allocate resources to populations based on their needs, and these needs often are estimated from responses to large-scale surveys. In a recent study published in the journal Medical Care, Sudano and colleagues reported that a commonly used health survey (the “SF-36v2”) is biased for Spanish-speaking Hispanics, but not for white, black or English-speaking counterparts. “We believe these results indicate that there are translation issues and cultural differences in the way Spanish speakers think about and report their health” says Dr. Joseph Sudano, PhD, lead author and medical sociologist at the Center, “We recommend reworking the survey to address both of these issues. In the meantime, we believe that policymakers should use caution when comparing SF-36v2 scores of Spanish-speaking Hispanics with those of other groups. “ Joining Dr. Sudano in this study are fellow Center members Adam Perzynski, PhD; Thomas E. Love, PhD; Steven A. Lewis, MS; Patrick M. Murray, MD, MS; and colleagues from Northwestern University Gail M Huber, PT, PhD; Bernice Ruo, MD; and David W. Baker, MD, MPH. (posted 5/2011)

How big a problem is the federal debt? A Center faculty member weighs in. On April 14, Mark Votruba, PhD, participated in a panel discussion about the federal debt on WCPN’s Sound of Ideas. Was Alan Greenspan listening? Maybe! The famous former chairman of the Federal Reserve has also recommended that the Bush tax cuts should be allowed to expire in their entirety. The show can be listened to at click here. (posted 4/2011)

County Health Rankings Released On March 30th, the University of Wisconsin, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, released the second annual County Health Rankings [www.countyhealthrankings.org] for all counties of all 50 states in the U.S. The rankings are based on publicly available data that include ‘social determinants’ as well as quality of care-related dimensions of health at the county level. Counties in the region ranked very differently among Ohio’s 88 counties – for example, Cuyahoga County ranked 69th overall, while Geagua ranked 2nd. Center Director Randy Cebul discussed the results on WEWS channel 5’s evening news. (posted 4/2011)

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