AcademyHealth launched the Situation Report in early 2025 to keep the field informed during a rapidly changing policy and research environment that left our community feeling unsettled as many faced funding cuts, job losses, and instability. The Situation Report, we’re proud to say, has served as a valued resource to health services researchers and others impacted by this environment. We have exciting plans for the Situation Report in 2026, including ways to evolve it to be even more useful for readers as we continue to navigate an unpredictable research and policy landscape.
As one reader said:
“I just wanted to take a minute to say thank you so much for putting these reports together and for all that you are doing to address the changes going on at the federal level. It’s really helpful for me as a leader of a research institute, and helps me to synthesize all that’s going on into one email. This saves me immense time, as I’m able to pull some highlighted points from this to share with my own researchers and teams. Thank you for taking the time to do this!”—A Situation Report Reader
A defining feature of the Situation Report is its emphasis on action the field could take. Readers are regularly invited to share how funding disruptions, data changes, or policy uncertainty was affecting their research teams, institutions, and the long-term health of the HSR workforce. These stories helped AcademyHealth advocate more effectively as we could provide real-world examples behind headlines and policy changes.
Defending the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
AcademyHealth has been at the forefront of efforts to safeguard AHRQ’s funding and visibility for more than two decades to ensure that the nation’s only federal agency dedicated to health services research, continues to have a strong voice in shaping how the U.S. health system learns and improves. This year, AcademyHealth brought media attention to the issue as our analysis of federal grants data made headlines in STAT News. Reporters, regulators, and congressional appropriators alike were concerned that the agency had not awarded a single new grant since April 1 – a sharp departure from nearly $6 million in new awards during the same period last year. Through sustained advocacy, AcademyHealth has helped secure bipartisan support for AHRQ, contributed to a funding increase to $369 million in FY24, and galvanized more than 170 national organizations to call for a fully funded and intact agency going into FY25. In September, 74 continuing grants resumed, releasing 39.2 million dollars.
Research!America honored AcademyHealth with the Paul G. Rogers Distinguished Organization Advocacy Award in recognition of our leadership in protecting AHRQ funding and mobilizing support across the field, demonstrating the strength and unity of our network. Read about our additional advocacy efforts on behalf of the agency here.
Safeguarding Evidence-Based Care Recommendations
AcademyHealth also tracked ongoing threats to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), a 16-member expert panel that is responsible for making recommendations for preventative services that health insurers must cover at no cost to enrollees under the Affordable Care Act that has not met since March. We mobilized our community as Secretary Kennedy considered dismissing its members in a similar fashion to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Back in July, AcademyHealth and the Friends of AHRQ, along with more than 100 partnering health organizations, sent a letter urging Secretary Kennedy to retain the existing USPSTF members and continue regular meetings, emphasizing the panel’s crucial role in guiding nonpartisan, evidence-based preventive care. We also provided technical assistance in drafting a resolution of support for the Task Force from Sen. Angus King (I-ME).
"Everyone deserves a fair chance to live a healthy life. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force helps make that possible by grounding preventive care in the best available science, not ideology. Senator King’s resolution is a strong affirmation that evidence, not politics, should guide how we keep people well," said Dr. Aaron Carroll, President and CEO of AcademyHealth.
AcademyHealth-initiated media efforts also spotlighted the critical value of an evidence-based USPSTF across a series of outlets including Axios, The Hill, MedPage Today, Inside Health Policy, and more.
Responding to Critical Federal Policy Changes
Through the Situation Report, AcademyHealth kept the field informed on critical developments related to and impact of the budget reconciliation bill that passed in July, ongoing and confusing federal reorganizations, especially at the CDC and HHS, and the impact of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history as well as what the failure to extend ACA subsidies means for health care coverage and affordability.
AcademyHealth's Situation Report also spotlighted the consequences of cutting billions in federal grants for health research and calling for substantial cuts to the National Institutes of Health. Aaron Carroll spoke with Dan Gorenstein on the Tradeoffs podcast about the future of health care research and federal funding and the importance of health services research in making our health care system less costly, more effective and safer.
“Federal funding really is irreplaceable,” Carroll said on the podcast. “Arbitrary cuts don’t raise quality. All they do is wipe out whole areas of inquiry and drive talent out of the field because people get scared.”
In order to support the field, we collected personal stories of the impact of these federal funding cuts on research and the overall research ecosystem as well as offered a resources and navigate this new landscape.
Tracking and Protecting Critical Health Datasets
One of our most significant wins of 2025 was our victory in our data lawsuit in which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agreed to restore federal datasets on webpages removed from NIH, CDC, and FDA sites earlier this year. The missing pages covered LGBTQ health, gender and reproductive health, clinical trials, vaccine guidance, HIV/AIDS research, and other essential topics. The restoration of this data has critical public health and real-world consequences. Read more on why public data matters in this article from our CEO Aaron Caroll in Health Affairs. AcademyHealth also tracked the impact of these missing and disappearing datasets on our community by asking researchers to share their stories to show how the suppression of this information impacted their work.
A Moment of Thanks and Recognizing Situation Report Authors
AcademyHealth is unwavering in our commitment to ensure that evidence drives decisions, influences policy, and improves health and health care for all. We’re grateful to our readers and those who champion evidence every day. We’re also grateful to authors of the AcademyHealth Situation Report who help make this work possible Lauren Adams, Lydia Babcock, Brianna Bragg, Josh Caplan, Zoe D’Angelo, Valerie Ernat, Annaliese Johnson, Lindsey Randall, Christina Tudor, and Sarah Weinberg.
We need support from readers who understand the value of evidence-based policies and the critical role AcademyHealth plays in shaping a data-driven health care system. You can make a donation today by texting AcademyHealth to 44-321.
Looking ahead to 2026:
Stay tuned for upcoming updates on ways the Situation Report will be evolving to meet readers needs in 2026, including more advocacy deep dives and ways to get involved.