Meeting Focus: Contributions of health services research (HSR) to effectiveness and efficiency in health and health care, and key priorities for HSR as a means of generating the evidence required to guide transformative progress in the next two decades.

Core Questions:

1. Contributions: How has HSR contributed to improvement in health gains and health care access, delivery, and quality—at various levels: system, organization, practice, and health-health care interfaces?
2. Priorities: What are the challenges, opportunities, and priorities for HSR in the next decade, and beyond, for improving access, safety, quality, value, and patient/family engagement in a changing health care environment, while reducing spending growth and advancing population health progress?
3. Support: What are the current public and private sources of support for HSR, what trends are in play, and do the metrics of decision-making and assessment vary by source and focus (e.g. technology assessment, clinical guidelines, care quality and safety, primary care, utilization and financing)? What should be the role of federal funding for HSR, now and in the long term?
4. Organization: How are HSR opportunities identified? How is HSR funded, coordinated, and results disseminated? How might these processes be improved? What is or should be the profile of a governance structure for HSR?
5. Statutory mandate: What might be the consequences if current legislative mandates related to HSR priorities—e.g. a Center on Primary Care Research and the Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics (CERTs)—were eliminated? How might important emphases be sustained and nurtured?

Intended Outcomes: Identify unique opportunities for the field of HSR to advance rigorous, timely, and relevant evidence, and inform national progress toward a health system that is person-centered, high performing, and continuously learning.