RAND

Will Require New Approaches in Designing, Adopting Strategies

November 11, 2009 -- Slowing the growth in U.S. health care spending will most likely require adoption of an array of strategies as well as an improved approach to moving promising strategies into widespread use, according to a new analysis by the RAND Corporation.

The most-promising option for curbing health care spending is changing the way doctors and hospitals are paid to provide care, but implementing such a system must overcome significant obstacles in order to be successful, according to the study published online by the New England Journal of Medicine.    » read more »

October 15, 2009 -- The New York City Department of Education's test-based promotion and retention policy, which identifies and provides support for struggling students, has demonstrated positive effects for student achievement in fifth grade that continue into seventh grade, according to a new RAND Corporation study issued today.

Researchers found that the policy helped students boost their performance on state assessment tests, a critical step toward advancing to the next grade level. The study also found that students retained under the policy didn't suffer negative social or emotional effects as a result of repeating a grade level.    » read more »

October 8, 2009 -- Because it will be difficult to prevent cyber attacks on critical civilian and military computer networks by threatening to punish attackers, the United States must focus its efforts on defending these networks from cyber attack, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

The study finds that the United States and other nations that rely on externally accessible computer networks—such as ones used for electric power, telephone service, banking, and military command and control—as a foundation for their military and economic power are subject to cyber attack.    » read more »

October 7, 2009 -- Although U.S. Army deployments have been linked positively to the likelihood of reenlisting for much of the past decade, a new RAND Corporation study shows that by 2006 the mounting burden of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan reached the point where deployment had a negative effect on reenlistment.

However, the increased rate of deployment did not reduce reenlistment rates through 2007 for any of the three other branches of the U.S. military.    » read more »

October 6, 2009 -- Restrictions on fast-food chain restaurants in South Los Angeles are not addressing the main differences between neighborhood food environments and are unlikely to improve the diet of residents or reduce obesity, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

Researchers from RAND Health found that the South Los Angeles region has no more fast-food chain establishments on a per capita basis than other parts of the city, but rather many more small food stores and other food outlets.

Those outlets are more likely to be the source of high-calorie snacks and soda consumed substantially more often by residents of South Los Angeles as compared to other parts of the city, according to the study published online by the journal Health Affairs.    » read more »

October 5, 2009 -- Routine use of electronic health records may improve the quality of care provided in community-based primary care practices more than other common strategies intended to raise the quality of medical care, according to a new study by RAND Corporation researchers.

Studying 305 groups of primary care physicians in Massachusetts, researchers found that practices that used multifunctional electronic health records were more likely to deliver better care for diabetes and provide certain health screenings than those that did not.    » read more »

September 29, 2009 -- A new RAND Corporation study outlines methods that might be used to test a novel payment system for medical care that would provide doctors, hospitals and other health providers a set fee for treating an ailment such as hip replacement surgery.

Proposals to pay health providers for so-called "episodes of care" have gained momentum during the ongoing debate about national health care reform as a strategy that could both curb medical spending and improve the quality of care.    » read more »

June 9, 2009 -- The long-term efficiency and effectiveness of the U.S. freight transportation system is threatened by bottlenecks, inefficient use of some parts of the infrastructure components, vulnerability to disruptions, and crucial environmental and energy concerns, according to a study issued today by the RAND Corporation.

The U.S. freight transportation system moves about $40 billion worth of goods each day, with delays and uncertainty in the performance of the system translating into higher prices for consumers and reduced productivity, according to researchers.    » read more »

June 2, 2009 -- Policymakers need to address equity concerns early when implementing congestion pricing to improve traffic flow, as each situation is unique and must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, according to a study issued today by the RAND Corporation.

Transportation policymakers often look to congestion pricing — charging drivers more to travel particular routes at peak travel times — as a way to reduce traffic gridlock and raise money for transportation projects. However, because these policies impose a cost on something that previously was not priced, critics often suggest that it will harm lower-income drivers who will be forced to pay additional costs or be "priced off" the roads.    » read more »

May 28, 2009 -- California can improve its early childhood education system in an era of fiscal crisis and lay the foundation for improving access and quality in the future when more resources are available, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

Making low-cost improvements to the system now by adopting efficiencies and creating flexibility to better use existing resources would likely allow more needy children to enroll in government-supported preschool programs and position the system to move toward higher-quality programs once new funding becomes available, according to the report.    » read more »

May 12, 2009 -- The record of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein compares favorably to that of many other U.S. efforts at post-conflict reconstruction, particularly in the areas of economic development, rule of law, education, health and democratization, according to a study released today by the RAND Corporation.

However, these achievements were undermined and overshadowed by the failure of American civilian and military authorities to protect the Iraqi population from the criminals and extremists among them who pulled Iraq into civil war.    » read more »

May 11, 2009 -- While on a net basis the United States imports nearly 60 percent of the oil it consumes, this reliance on imported oil is not by itself a major national security threat, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today.

The study finds that the economic costs of a major disruption in global oil supplies—including higher prices for American consumers—pose the greatest risk to the United States.    » read more »

April 28, 2009 -- The United States should forge a strategic partnership with Mexico that emphasizes reform and long-term institution building as a way to battle the ongoing drug war and other security challenges that face Mexico, according to a new RAND Corporation report.

While much attention has focused on addressing Mexico's recent drug violence, the new RAND report goes beyond the narcotics-violence link and examines a broader set of issues that confront Mexico's security and the security interests of the United States.    » read more »

March 18, 2009 -- While the number of charter schools continues to grow, debate continues about whether charter schools provide a better education experience than traditional public schools. Proponents contend that charter schools expand educational choices for students, increase innovation, improve student achievement and provide much-needed competition to public schools.

Opponents, meanwhile, argue that charter schools lead to increased racial or ethnic stratification of students, skim the best students from traditional public schools, reduce resources for public schools and provide no real improvement in student achievement.    » read more »

March 10, 2009 -- A large group of California physicians given financial incentives to improve the quality of medical care have begun to embrace an array of changes important to advancing quality, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today.

Measures adopted by medical groups include speeding up adoption of information technology such as electronic medical records, more closely tracking the improvement of physician performance and sharpening institutional focus on quality, according to findings published in the March/April edition of the journal Health Affairs. The project was supported by a grant from the California HealthCare Foundation.    » read more »