Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: Difference between revisions

AHRQ's earliest predecessor was the '''National Center for Health Services Research and Development''', established in 1968 within the PHS Health Services and Mental Health Administration (HSMHA) during the 1966–1973 PHS reorganizations.<ref name=":0" />  It was established largely through the efforts of members of the [[National Institutes of Health|NIH]] [[Center for Scientific Review|Division of Research Grants]] Health Services Study Section.<ref name=":1" />  The new center quickly absorbed the PHS Division of Chronic Diseases,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=1998-03-12 |title=History of Health Services Research ProjectInterview with Kerr White |url=https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/nichsr/white.html |access-date=2024-11-11 |website=U.S. National Library of Medicine}}</ref><ref name=":163">{{Federal Register|33|9909}}</ref> which dated back to 1949,<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |date=2016-08-15 |title=Records of the Public Health Service [PHS], 1912-1968 |url=https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/090.html |access-date=2020-08-28 |website=National Archives |at=Sections 90.7, 90.8 |language=en}}</ref> in order to access the latter's larger budget.<ref name=":1" />

In 1989, the agency became its own operating agency within PHS, and was renamed '''Agency for Health Care Policy and Research''' (AHCPR)<ref name=":0" /> by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989 ({{USStat|103|2159}}).

However, AHCPR became controversial when it produced several guidelines that some thought would reduce medical drugs and procedures. This included concern from ophthalmologists on a cataract guideline and concern by the pharmaceutical industry over a reduction in the use of new drugs. When the agency produced a guideline that concluded that back pain surgery was unnecessary and potentially harmful, a lobbying campaign aided by Congressmen whose backs had been operated on changed the name of the agency and scaled back the guidelines program, which existed as the National Guideline Clearinghouse.<ref>Avorn J. ''Powerful Medicines: The Benefits, Risks, and Costs of Prescription Drugs'', pp. 277–288. Random House.</ref> until it was defunded in 2018.