Can research change the way MDs practice medicine?

Health care clinicians are inundated with data from health services research, and many providers are pioneering local applications of the research findings. But are the fruits of this data revolution finding practical application at the patient's bedside? In many cases, yes. A significant number of health care executives and physicians are pioneering programs that bring the lofty goals and methods of national health services research down to "real world" applications appropriate for their hospitals. Lack of applicability is the main reason community hospitals have been slow to use health services research generated at teaching hospitals, say experts. Now, that is changing. Executives are finding that the exacting work required to design tailored clinical appropriateness studies for their institution results in improved physician relations and better patient care. "Almost consistently we find that physicians who practice at the high end respond [to this feedback] by altering their practice patterns and cutting the rate at which they perform a particular service or procedure," says Robert Keller, M.D., executive director of the Maine Medical Assessment Foundation.