Advocacy

Last year – as part of our ongoing charge to ensure health services research is accounted for in federal policy – AcademyHealth submitted several comments to federal policymakers -- among them were responses to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects and the NPRM on the Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Patient Records from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. This year we’ve seen final rules on both these subjects released.

Day in and day out, AcademyHealth works to ensure that the best evidence – evidence from our members and other bright minds working throughout health services and policy research – is used to inform policy and practice. Our advocacy efforts are core to that mission.

As we head into inauguration day and prepare for a new administration to enter the White House, we hold firm in our principle that policies affecting health and performance of the health system should be informed by the best and most relevant evidence.

Last week’s election has resulted in a number of perspectives and prognostications on what the results of the election mean and how they could impact health and health care, health research, and the science enterprise more broadly. Below is a sample of what we’ve been reading this week: