����vlog����

What health care reform can accomplish is often the subject of intense debate. Stories used as evidence to prove a particular point of view abound by both proponents and opponents alike, say authors Amitabh Chandra and Katherine Baicker in “Evidence-Based Health Policy,” a commentary appearing in the December issue of. These viewpoints, however, are often anecdotal and insufficient in making their arguments, they say. “Voters, physicians, and policymakers are left to wade through a jumble of anecdotes, aspirations, associations, and well-designed studies as they try to evaluate policy alternatives,” say Chandra, of the Harvard Kennedy School and Baicker of the University of Chicago. 

The authors call for employing a rational approach to making policy choices and present a framework for distinguishing what is and isn’t evidence-based health policy (EBHP). They recommend three “essential characteristics” for identifying evidence-based policies: They must be specific enough that policy makers can understand their effectiveness, distinguishable as a policy and not a goal, and well-defined about the magnitude of the effects of the policy.