Understanding of the Efficiency and Effectiveness of the Health Care System

For more than 20 years, the Dartmouth Atlas Project has documented glaring variations in how medical resources are distributed and used in the United States. The project uses Medicare data to provide information and analysis about national, regional, and local markets, as well as hospitals and their affiliated physicians. This research has helped policymakers, the media, health care analysts and others improve their understanding of our health care system and forms the foundation for many of the ongoing efforts to improve health and health systems across America. LEARN MORE

For many elective procedures, such as bypass surgery, whether patients undergo surgery depends largely on where they live and the clinicians they see. Read more in "Improving Patient Decision-Making in Health Care: A 2012 Dartmouth Atlas Report."

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SPOTLIGHT

- Improving Patient Decision-Making in Health Care: A 2012 Dartmouth Atlas Series
- Medicine involves decisions. But for Medicare patients with conditions for which surgery is an option, whether they undergo elective surgery depends largely on where they live and the clinicians they see. A new series of reports looks at the variation in surgical rates in 306 hospital referral regions across the United States. Each report highlights one of nine regions and shows the variation that exists even across these smaller geographic areas.
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- What Kind of Physician Will You Be? Variation in Health Care and Its Importance for Residency Training
- When choosing a residency program, medical students typically consider the reputation and training curriculum of the institution, as well as their own geographical and lifestyle preferences. But there's something else they should consider: The way academic medical centers deliver health care differs dramatically from one institution to the next.
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The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care is based at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice and is supported by a coalition of funders led by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, including the WellPoint Foundation, the United Health Foundation, the California HealthCare Foundation, and the Charles H. Hood Foundation.