The October issue of Health Affairs looks at comparative effectiveness research in the era of health care reform. Among the articles: Kavita Patel of the New America Foundation examines the political process that led to the development of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, a nonprofit organization that will conduct evidence-based medicine research. And, in another article, researchers at the Brookings Institution analyzed the implementation of comparative effectiveness research afforded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and sustained by the health reform law. The authors conclude that "priorities for the new funding should include greater emphasis on experimental research; evaluation of reforms at the health system level; identification of effects on subgroups of patients; inclusion of understudied groups of patients; and dissemination of results." The journal (along with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) also put out a policy brief on comparative effectiveness research.