Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC) Systematic Reviews are designed to inform health-care decisions by providing evidence on the effectiveness, benefits, and harms of different treatment options. The evidence is generated from research studies that compare drugs, medical devices, tests, surgeries, or ways to deliver health care.

The Effective Health Care Program funds individual researchers, research centers, and academic organizations to work together with AHRQ to produce effectiveness and comparative effectiveness research for clinicians, consumers, and policymakers.

Systematic reviews draw on completed scientific studies to make head-to-head comparisons of different health care interventions. They outline the effectiveness — or benefits and harms — of treatment options.

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