Main
About Us
Purpose & Scope

Center Highlights

Directors
Becoming a Member

Education & Training

Units
Activities
Grants
Publications

Faculty
Related Links
Contact

Outcomes Research
"Outcomes research--the study of the end results of health services that takes patients’ experiences, preferences, and values into account--is intended to provide scientific evidence relating to decisions made by all who participate in health care. Associating differences in the process of care with differences in patient outcomes can help to clarify which services are worth providing, which services represent misused resources or a need for more evidence about their effectiveness, and where clinicians and organizations have an opportunity for improvement.  Concerns about improving the effectiveness and outcomes of health care services have stimulated researchers in the clinical, quantitative, behavioral, and social sciences to come together in this important and emerging field to apply existing and/or develop new research methods for studying the outcomes of health care services and the impact these services have on patients’ quality of life and on the cost of care.  (Clancy and Eisenberg, Science, October 1998) 

Outcomes Research at UAB
In January 1996, UAB designated Outcomes Research as one of the five top priorities for development, and in August 1996, the Research on Outcomes Workgroup was formed and chartered by the Provost's Research Advisory Group to assess interest campus wide and to draft a plan to further develop outcomes research at UAB. The development of the COERE is directly responsive to that plan. 

COERE
As one of the newest members of UAB's family of University-Wide Interdisciplinary Research Centers, the COERE augments existing efforts to position UAB in the area of outcomes research, an area of rapidly growing clinical and economic importance.  Its membership is comprised of faculty and research staff from across UAB representing all of the Schools within the Academic Health Center (Dentistry, Health-Related Professions, Medicine, Nursing, Optometry and Public Health) as well as the Schools of Business, Education, Engineering and Social and Behavioral Sciences.

The COERE is organized into six research and training units. These units function as shared facilities within the university research community. Within each unit a Director is supported and advised by volunteer faculty who serve as members of the unit's Steering Committee. These members have expertise in areas related to the research functions and services of their unit. The COERE Directors are also advised by an  Internal Advisory Committee of UAB faculty leadership who represent the COERE's sponsoring schools, and who have extensive track records in developing research programs and obtaining extramural support. 

Directors
Units
Faculty
Advisory Committee