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Sesame Street comes to Google: Improving our education system at the Breakthrough Learning forum

If you could reinvent the American education system, what would you do? It's a question we think about a lot here at Google. This week we're exploring possibilities with <a href="http://www.google.com/events/digitalage/">Breakthrough Learning in a Digital Age</a>, a forum organized in cooperation with <a href="http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/">The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop</a> and <a href="http://www.commonsensemedia.org/">Common Sense Media</a>, with the support of the <a href="http://macfound.org/">MacArthur Foundation</a>. This event will bring together 200 of the nation’s thought leaders in science and technology, informal and formal education, entertainment media, research, philanthropy and policy to design a strategy for scaling up effective models of teaching and learning for children, with an emphasis on technology. The forum will showcase new research, proven and promising education innovation models to challenge decision-makers to refresh and reboot American global leadership in education. There's plenty of evidence that shows that the current educational system in the U.S. needs improvement. Twenty-five years ago, President Reagan's National Commission on Excellence in Education produced "<a href="http://www.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/index.html">A Nation at Risk</a>," a report which first highlighted that our country's system wasn't meeting the national need for a competitive workforce in the day's global economy. Since then, our education system has gone through great upheaval, from the state-level standards reforms in the 1990s to 2002's <a href="http://www.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml?src=ln">No Child Left Behind</a>, which is similarly based on the belief that setting high standards measurable goals will improve individual outcomes in education. Though the intention of these reforms was to close the global achievement gap, they left many teachers and students feeling restricted to teaching and learning "to the test." And we're still seeing disheartening results; the U.S. is currently ranked 25th of <a href="http://www.oecd.org/home/">OECD</a> countries in math scores and 24th in science scores according to the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/document/2/0,3343,en_32252351_32236191_39718850_1_1_1_1,00.html">PISA 2006 Science Competencies for Tomorrow's World report</a>. And according to <a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/clientservice/Social_Sector/our_practices/Education/Knowledge_Highlights/Economic_impact.aspx">McKinsey's Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America's Schools</a> report, if the U.S. had in recent years closed the gap between its educational achievement levels and those of higher-performing nations, our GDP in 2008 could have been $1.3 trillion to $2.3 trillion higher. That's 9 to 16 percent of GDP! Fortunately, there are people today who are working to change these statistics. One is tonight's keynote speaker, Geoff Canada, founder of the <a href="http://harlemchildrenszone.org/">Harlem Children's Zone</a>. The Harlem Children's Zone combines educational, social and medical services with the goal of reaching all of the children in Harlem. Another organization addressing the issue is the <a href="http://macfound.org/">MacArthur Foundation</a>, which has created the Digital Media and Learning Project to explore the effects of digital media on young people and its implications for the future of learning and education. And we can't forget <a href="http://www.sesameworkshop.org/home">Sesame Workshop</a>, which this year celebrates 40 years of educating children with Muppets and media. There's great hope for American education, as long as we can work toward innovative solutions that not only allow students distinct educational experiences tailored to their interests and abilities, but also drive toward a common goal of assessable success. Students today are technologists too, and embracing that familiarity and bringing it into the classroom will help teachers and students better engage and work together to teach and learn. Most importantly, we need to support our teachers, principals and administrators — the true agents of change who tirelessly and passionately work to connect with each and every student that passes through their classrooms. The Breakthrough Learning in a Digital Age forum is one step we're taking to address some of our most pressing national education system issues. If you're interested in joining us at the forum, we'll be broadcasting live on the web both <a href="http://investor.shareholder.com/googpr/eventdetail.cfm?eventid=72855">today</a> and <a href="http://investor.shareholder.com/googpr/eventdetail.cfm?eventid=72857">tomorrow</a>. We welcome your <a href="http://moderator.appspot.com/#16/e=c77db">questions and ideas</a> to help us shape our discussions. Go to <a href="http://www.google.com/events/digitalage/">http://www.google.com/events/digitalage/</a> to participate and learn more. Posted by Cristin Frodella, Product Marketing, Google Apps Education

Sesame Street comes to Google: Improving our education system at the Breakthrough Learning forum

If you could reinvent the American education system, what would you do? It's a question we think about a lot here at Google. This week w...

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Use Google Voice with your existing number

Up until now, if you wanted to use <a href="http://google.com/voice">Google Voice</a>, you needed to choose a new number (a "Google number"). Taking calls through your Google number allows us to offer features like call recording, call screening and getting text messages via email. But we know not everyone wants to switch to a new phone number, so it made sense for us to create a lighter version of Google Voice for people who are willing to trade some features for the ability to use their existing numbers. We're excited to announce that you now have the choice to get Google Voice with your existing mobile number OR with a Google number. If you sign up using your existing number, you'll still get many of Google Voice's features. Most notably, you'll get all the functionality of Google voicemail, as explained in this video: <object height="295" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ua9Q5frlQ2M&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ua9Q5frlQ2M&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> If you already have a Google Voice account, you can <a href="http://www.google.com/support/voice/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=164652">add Google voicemail</a> to any mobile phone you've linked to your account. If you're not yet using Google Voice, you can <a href="https://services.google.com/fb/forms/googlevoiceinvite/">request an invite</a> or ask a friend with a Google Voice account to send you an invitation. When you receive the invitation to sign up, you can choose to use Google Voice with your existing number — or to get a Google number for additional features. Google Voice is about giving you more control over your communications. We hope this new option makes it easier for you to manage your messages and personalize your voicemail experience. Posted by Craig Walker, Vincent Paquet & Pierre Lebeau, Product Managers

Use Google Voice with your existing number

Up until now, if you wanted to use Google Voice , you needed to choose a new number (a "Google number"). Taking calls through your...

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Energy Secretary Chu visits Googleplex

Secretary of Energy <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Chu">Dr. Steven Chu</a> joined us at the <a href="http://maps.google.com/?q=Google%20Inc.@37.423156,-122.084917&hl=en">Google campus</a> today to talk about how the U.S. can build a prosperous economy powered by clean energy. During a fireside chat with Googlers and our CEO Eric Schmidt, Secretary Chu talked about what it will take to create a clean energy revolution. When it comes to clean tech investments, he said, the Department of Energy is trying to "hit home runs, not base hits." He noted that there are many proposed solutions to climate change out there, and we need to pursue all of them. "The scale of what we need to do is enormous," said Secretary Chu, and "putting the world on a carbon diet" and dramatically bringing down the cost of clean energy and should be top priorities. If we succeed, it will "drive a new industrial revolution." <div> </div><div>You can watch the full video of his talk here:</div><div> <object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tvUujZVYJuY&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tvUujZVYJuY&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object> <div> Secretary Chu also heard from Googlers about some of our own clean energy projects including <a href="http://www.google.org/powermeter/">Google PowerMeter</a>, which gives consumers access to their energy use information, developing <a href="http://www.google.org/rec.html">renewable energy that is cheaper than coal</a> (RE<C) and making our <a href="http://www.google.com/corporate/green/datacenters/">datacenters</a> the most energy efficient in the world. "More companies need to get on board and make this part of their business plan," said the Secretary. While in Mountain View, Secretary Chu <a href="http://www.energy.gov/news2009/8207.htm">announced</a> $151 million in funding for 37 breakthrough energy projects in technologies like renewable power, energy efficiency and electric cars. The funding is being made available through the <a href="http://arpa-e.energy.gov/">Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy</a> (ARPA-E), a newly-launched organization within the <a href="http://www.energy.gov/">Department of Energy</a> (DOE) created to support high-risk, high-reward research into innovative energy technologies. ARPA-E is modeled on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the agency that funded research that eventually led to the creation of the Internet.</div><div> </div><div>Update on 10/29: Updated to include the full video of Secretary Chu's talk. Posted by Michael Terrell, Energy Policy Counsel</div></div>

Energy Secretary Chu visits Googleplex

Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu joined us at the Google campus today to talk about how the U.S. can build a prosperous economy powered ...

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Contextual search within Wikipedia

We are excited to announce that we've built a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Google_Custom_Search">Custom Search Wikipedia skin</a> that makes it easier for you to complete your research on Wikipedia. Wikipedia allows users to register and personalize their Wikipedia environment via the configuration of options and the use of styles or skins. Just log in to Wikipedia, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Google_Custom_Search">enable the Custom Search skin</a> and you'll have quick access to relevant Google Custom Search results from Wikipedia. With the Custom Search skin, your search results are conveniently placed inline on the page. After you've reviewed the results, you can dismiss them and return to the current article of interest without having to switch to a different tab on your browser; you can access the relevant Wikipedia articles right within the Wikipedia interface. The Custom Search skin also features contextual search — searching across different sets of pages as you navigate Wikipedia. For Wikipedia pages with a lot of information and links, contextual search lets you limit your search to only those Wikipedia pages that are linked from the current article, focusing the results on the topic of the article. So, in addition to getting all matching Wikipedia articles, you can quickly drill down to contextually relevant results using the Linked Wikipedia Pages tab. For example, searching for [sequence] from a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA">Wikipedia page on DNA</a> provides a list of relevant results about DNA sequences and DNA sequence alignment, instead of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequence_%28disambiguation%29">many pages about sequences</a> (in mathematics, poetry, music, games, etc.) that aren't relevant. Similarly, searching within the DNA page for [bonds] gives you results in chemistry and biochemistry, instead of other information about financial instruments and social sciences. This will help you perform more directed research, often with shorter queries, and get to relevant Wikipedia articles faster. As you can see from the screenshot below, the Linked Wikipedia Pages tab helps you get quickly to the article about DNA sequence from a search for [sequence] on the DNA page. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_XxukNkXWcE7ViprwV6A6F1FNsBX-0Gs3zAfhSrF1Gx6_xZUlADuUZNal0057ZvEWcVBuPGDkdCer1FqL_FBzF0FZ3uDMkVHjPiqpye6uBphzmkiWxYquRN8epk6ydbK6PsVX4i4ObZEm/s1600-h/w1"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397037129679706658" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_XxukNkXWcE7ViprwV6A6F1FNsBX-0Gs3zAfhSrF1Gx6_xZUlADuUZNal0057ZvEWcVBuPGDkdCer1FqL_FBzF0FZ3uDMkVHjPiqpye6uBphzmkiWxYquRN8epk6ydbK6PsVX4i4ObZEm/s400/w1" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 230px;" /></a> To configure the new skin, follow the instructions on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Google_Custom_Search">Custom Search skin page on Wikipedia</a>. It works with both Wikipedia's default Monobook style or the new Beta Vector style. You will need to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin">log in</a> to Wikipedia to customize your Wikipedia search. For more information about the technology behind this application release, read <a href="http://googlecustomsearch.blogspot.com/2009/10/contextual-search-experience-for.html">our post</a> on the Google Custom Search blog. Wikipedia <a href="http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/10/26/google-experiments-with-new-ways-to-search-wikipedia/">encourages</a> technical innovation and tools to help you get improved access to knowledge, so please post your opinions about this contextual search experience at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Google_Custom_Search#Google_Custom_search_gadget">Wikimedia</a> or give us <a href="http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/customsearch?hl=en">feedback</a> directly. Last Friday was the third anniversary of the launch of Custom Search — we would like to take a moment to thank the millions of you who have implemented Custom Search on your sites. To celebrate our birthday we're releasing two new features that we hope will help you better customize your search results: <a href="http://googlecustomsearch.blogspot.com/2009/10/plug-n-play-with-custom-search-themes.html">Custom Search Themes</a> and <a href="http://googlecustomsearch.blogspot.com/2009/10/structured-custom-search.html">Structured Custom Search</a>. Check out <a href="http://googlecustomsearch.blogspot.com/2009/10/three-birthday-candles-for-custom.html">this post</a> on the Google Custom Search blog to learn more about our third anniversary. Posted by Rajat Mukherjee, Group Product Manager, Search and Mathias Schindler, Wikimedia Foundation

Contextual search within Wikipedia

We are excited to announce that we've built a Custom Search Wikipedia skin that makes it easier for you to complete your research on Wi...

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Liberate your Google Docs with Convert, Zip and Download

This past September, you may have heard about the launch of our <a href="http://dataliberation.blogspot.com/2009/09/welcome-to-data-liberation-front.html">Data Liberation</a> site, a central place on the web detailing how you can easily move your data into or away from Google's cloud. Today, we're adding another product to our growing list of liberations: the "Convert, Zip and Download" feature in Google Docs, which allows you to download a bunch — or all — of your Docs simultaneously. This new feature comes out of a collaboration between the Google Docs engineering team and Google's Data Liberation Front, a small team of engineers that aims to make it easy for you to transfer your personal data in and out of Google's services by building simple import and export functions. "Convert, Zip and Download" now joins dozens of other liberation features across our product offerings, ranging from Blogger's <a href="http://www.dataliberation.org/google/blogger">full blog downloads</a> to <a href="http://www.dataliberation.org/google/gmail">email export from Gmail</a> using IMAP and POP3. The feature lets you bundle your Google Docs in a format of your choice (MS Office, Open Office, PDF, etc.) and download them as a zip file. No longer do you have to download each document individually, which can take a lot of time if you have hundreds of documents like I do! All you need to do is select the relevant Docs, click on "Export" from the "More Actions" menu and download them in one go. (Check out the <a href="http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2009/10/data-liberation-mark-as-viewed-and-new.html">Google Docs Blog</a> for more details.) <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN0NgF-CVFFBAhiiSzpceFcNc3_dczLkdYVdu3bj70P8QNnWxWNuYZmzFOQ00qQ0Q38jH0n6BT524eQtJohJXnjkczHdjIP0vGox5eprl5l3qsCpvFOyKxDaPULJ09TyBV8bz_WLrVpg0u/s1600-h/ccs8p3jp_39s3ct2kg5_b.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397020504016073522" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN0NgF-CVFFBAhiiSzpceFcNc3_dczLkdYVdu3bj70P8QNnWxWNuYZmzFOQ00qQ0Q38jH0n6BT524eQtJohJXnjkczHdjIP0vGox5eprl5l3qsCpvFOyKxDaPULJ09TyBV8bz_WLrVpg0u/s400/ccs8p3jp_39s3ct2kg5_b.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 168px;" /></a> We hope you find the new export feature useful. We strongly believe that you — not the products you use — should control your data, and be able to quickly and easily take that data out of any product without a hassle. We've already liberated more than half of our products, and are working hard to address the remaining challenges. Keep an eye out for more upcoming Data Liberations. You can also take a deeper look into product liberation at <a href="http://www.dataliberation.org/">dataliberation.org</a>, follow us on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/dataliberation">@dataliberation</a> or contribute suggestions for services that you think need to be liberated on our Data Liberation <a href="http://moderator.appspot.com/#16/e=43649">Moderator page</a>. Posted by Brian Fitzpatrick, Engineering Manager, the Data Liberation Front

Liberate your Google Docs with Convert, Zip and Download

This past September, you may have heard about the launch of our Data Liberation site, a central place on the web detailing how you can easi...

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Introducing Google Social Search: I finally found my friend's New York blog!

Your friends and contacts are a key part of your life online. Most people on the web today make social connections and publish web content in many different ways, including blogs, status updates and tweets. This translates to a public social web of content that has special relevance to each person. Unfortunately, that information isn't always very easy to find in one simple place. That's why today we're rolling out a new <a href="http://www.google.com/experimental/">experiment on Google Labs</a> called Google Social Search that helps you find more relevant public content from your broader social circle. It should be available for everyone to try by the end of the day, so be sure to check back. A lot of people write about New York, so if I do a search for [new york] on Google, my best friend's New York blog probably isn't going to show up on the first page of my results. Probably what I'll find are some well-known and official sites. We've taken steps to improve the relevance of our search results with <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/personally-speaking.html">personalization</a>, but today's launch takes that one step further. With Social Search, Google finds relevant public content from your friends and contacts and highlights it for you at the bottom of your search results. When I do a simple query for [new york], Google Social Search includes my friend's blog on the results page under the heading "Results from people in your social circle for New York." I can also filter my results to see only content from my social circle by clicking "Show options" on the results page and clicking "Social." Check out this video for a demo: <object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZqWJxgp-_mU&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZqWJxgp-_mU&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object> All the information that appears as part of Google Social Search is published publicly on the web — you can find it without Social Search if you really want to. What we've done is surface that content together in one single place to make your results more relevant. The way we do it is by building a social circle of your friends and contacts using the connections linked from your public Google profile, such as the people you're following on Twitter or FriendFeed. The results are specific to you, so you need to be signed in to your Google Account to use Social Search. If you use Gmail, we'll also include your chat buddies and contacts in your friends, family, and coworkers groups. And if you use Google Reader, we'll include some websites from your subscriptions as part of your social search results. To learn more about how Social Search works behind the scenes, including the choices and control you have over the content you see and share, read our <a href="http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=165228">help center article</a> or watch this video: <object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BlpTjP6h6Ms&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BlpTjP6h6Ms&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object> This feature is an experiment, but we've been using it at Google and the results have been exciting. We'd love to hear your <a href="http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Web+Search/thread?tid=5818e141dc58c2bd&hl=en">feedback</a>. Oh, and don't forget to <a href="http://www.google.com/profiles">create a public Google profile</a> to expand your social circle and more easily find the information you're looking for (including that New York blog). Posted by Maureen Heymans, Technical Lead and Murali Viswanathan, Product Manager

Introducing Google Social Search: I finally found my friend's New York blog!

Your friends and contacts are a key part of your life online. Most people on the web today make social connections and publish web content i...

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Who Should Sponsor Comparative Effectiveness Research?

We have tried to argue why comparative effectiveness research is a good idea. To cut and paste what I wrote in <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2007/09/comparative-effectiveness-kerfuffle.html">a previous post</a>, <blockquote> Physicians spend a lot of time trying to figure out the best treatments for particular patients' problems. Doing so is often hard. In many situations, there are many plausible treatments, but the trick is picking the one most likely to do the most good and least harm for a particular patient. Ideally, this is where evidence based medicine comes in. But the biggest problem with using the EBM approach is that often the best available evidence does not help much. In particular, for many clinical problems, and for many sorts of patients, no one has ever done a good quality study that compares the plausible treatments for those problems and those patients. When the only studies done compared individual treatments to placebos, and when even those were restricted to narrow patient populations unlike those patient usually seen in daily practice, physicians are left juggling oranges, tomatoes, and carburetors. Comparative effectiveness studies are simply studies that compare plausible treatments that could be used for patients with particular problems, and which are designed to be generalizable to the sorts of patients usually seen in practice. As a physician, I welcome such studies, because they may provide very useful information that could help me select the optimal treatments for individual patients. Because I believe that comparative effectiveness studies could be very useful to improve patient care, it upsets me to see this particular kind of clinical study get caught in political, ideological, and economic battles. </blockquote> In particular, we have discussed a number of high profile attacks on comparative effectiveness research, which often have featured arguments based on logical fallacies. While some of the people making the attacks have assumed a conservative or libertarian ideological mantle, one wonders whether the attacks were more driven by personal financial interests. For example, see our blog posts <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2007/09/over-top-denunciation-of-comparative.html">here</a>, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2007/09/comparative-effectiveness-kerfuffle.html">here</a>, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2007/10/whose-opinions-did-new-york-times.html">here</a>, and <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/02/attack-on-government-funded-comparative.html">here</a>. On the other hand, we discussed a clear-headed defense of comparative effectiveness research by a well-known economist most would regard as libertarian <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/06/clear-headed-defense-of-comparative.html">here</a>. Comparative effectiveness research has been discussed as an element of health care reform in the US. It turns out that the current version of the health care reform bill in the US Senate has a provision to create a Patient Centered Outcome Research Institute, which presumably would become the major organization which could sponsor comparative effectiveness research. This institute, however, would not be a government agency (despite the name that makes it sound like it would be part of the National Institutes of Health). Moreover, here is a description of the Board of Governors who would run the institute from the <a href="http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/leg/LEG%202009/101909%20America">current version of the bill </a>: <blockquote> BOARD OF GOVERNORS.— (1) IN GENERAL.—The Institute shall have a Board of Governors, which shall consist of 15 members appointed by the Comptroller General of the United States not later than 6 months after the date of enactment of this section, as follows: (A) 3 members representing patients and health care consumers. (B) 3 members representing practicing physicians, including surgeons. (C) 3 members representing private payers, of whom at least 1 member shall represent health insurance issuers and at least 1 member shall represent employers who self-insure employee benefits. (D) 3 members representing pharmaceutical, device, and diagnostic manufacturers or developers. (E) 1 member representing nonprofit organizations involved in health services research. (F) 1 member representing organizations that focus on quality measurement and improvement or decision support. (G) 1 member representing independent health services researchers. </blockquote> Thus, only 3/15 members of the governing board would represent the patients who ultimately reap the benefits or suffer the harms produced by medical diagnosis and treatment. Further, 6/15 members represent for-profit corporations which stand to make more or less money depending on how particular comparative effectiveness studies come out. Also, 3/15 members would be physicians, some of who may get paid more to deliver particular treatments (e.g., procedures) than others (e.g., providing advice about diet and exercise). We often discuss how clinical research sponsored by organizations with vested interest in the research turning out to favor their products or services may be <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/manipulating%20clinical%20research">manipulated</a> to favor these interests, and sometimes <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/suppression%20of%20medical%20research">suppressed</a> if it does not. In the US, there are few unconflicted sources of sparse funds to support comparative effectiveness research. (The most significant current source is the <a href="http://www.ahrq.gov/">Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality</a>, AHRQ. For full disclosure, I have been an ad hoc reviewer of grants for that agency.) The current draft of legislation would create the largest potential sponsor for comparative effectiveness research, but would make that organization report to representatives of for-profit companies whose profits may be affected by the results of such research. In my humble opinion, this is not much of an advance. Comparative effectiveness research controlled by corporations that stand to profit or lose depending on its results will forever be suspect. If the government is going to support comparative effectiveness research, it ought to make sure such research is not run by people with vested interests in the outcomes coming out a certain way. I may be biased myself, but why not let the research be sponsored by AHRQ, an agency with relevant experience and no axe to grind vis a vis any particular product or service?

Who Should Sponsor Comparative Effectiveness Research?

We have tried to argue why comparative effectiveness research is a good idea. To cut and paste what I wrote in a previous post , Physicians ...

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