Evaluation of systematic review outputs and outcomes is necessary to ensure user needs are being met, demonstrate impact, plan future dissemination, and justify funding. While the EPC program has been in operation for some time, efforts to evaluate the use of our CERs are still being developed. One important ongoing activity is conducted by one of the AHRQ-funded EPCs, ECRI, which monitors and documents CER use as measured by citation in clinical practice guidelines. The RTI-UNC EPC conducted a special project to analyze the impact of two CERs, with emphasis on the creation of new research opportunities. AHRQ, with assistance from a student intern, completed a Web utilization project, based upon report hits and downloads, for a sample of CERs. Other efforts have assessed utilization by third party payers. None of the use monitoring activities or projects to date has addressed an increasingly popular type of resource for clinicians, clinical point-of-care (POC) tools.
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