Transfer of Information and Its Impact on Medical Practice: The U.S. Experience

Abstract

Since 1977, the Consensus Development Program of the Office of Medical Applications of Research (OMAR), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has sponsored more than 50 consensus development conferences (CDCs) on the safety and efficacy of important biomedical technologies. The aim of these conferences, described fully elsewhere (4), is to inform the health care community, and to some extent the public, of the status of emerging biomedical technologies and the need for change in the use of existing health-related technologies. OMAR has therefore, worked diligently to publicize conference findings among these audiences. Further, OMAR has sought to improve the effectiveness of these transfer activities by conducting assessments of the impact of CDCs on their primary audience, U.S. physicians.