What Physicians Know

Abstract

It has become a truism that not only does the United States spend more money on health care than do other industrialized nations, but also a substantial portion of this sum is wasted on unproved or ineffective diagnosis and therapy. Not surprisingly, then, outcomes research -- that is, the rigorous determination of what works in medical care and what does not -- figures prominently in proposals for health care reform. Outcomes research, by informing the content of policy positions, payment rules, and practice guidelines, presumably both solves the problems of quality and cost that beset the health care system and . . .