The Scientific Resource Center is a coordinating center for a large, multi-center federal program that collectively aims to synthesize evidence to inform medical decisionmaking. We are a centralized resource for scientific, medical, editorial, and technical expertise to promote scientific rigor, and consistency within the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC) program.

Primary functions

We support the production of EPC evidence reviews from conception, through production, and into publication and dissemination. We work with medical decision makers to transform their decisional dilemmas into research questions and assist AHRQ in prioritizing those research questions for funding.

We help to ensure methodological consistency and rigor across EPCs by facilitating workgroups, and we promote collaboration and expansion of skills by hosting program-wide meetings. We develop templates and resources to promote consistency across the EPCs. We are essential in the editorial oversight of EPC evidence reviews, both by providing direct editorial input and managing the recruitment and activities of peer reviewers. Working with our partners at Academy Health, we have assembled a panel of leaders from health systems and academia in order to broaden the audience for—and quicken the uptake of—medical evidence from the program as well as to ensure that program products are developed to better meet the information needs of clinicians, health systems, policymakers, and others. We also have innovated and piloted a more modern web-based presentation for EPC reviews ("NxGen") and are assisting AHRQ in the implementation of this new report format.



The SRC is located at the Portland Veterans Administration Hospital campus in beautiful, sunny Portland, Oregon. It was created and contracted in 2005 at the request of AHRQ. We can be reached by email at AHRQSRC@va.gov.