The federal government funds the research, runs the disease tracking, and keeps the health data the whole country relies on to know what works and what's safe. This is a practical plan to protect it, so the people making health decisions have evidence they can trust.
For most of a century, the United States built the most productive health evidence system in the world. But much of what protected it rested on habit and good faith rather than law. Other weaknesses are longstanding: data systems are fragmented and slow, and funding rises and falls with the budget cycle. When the system falters, the cost shows up everywhere, in slower outbreak response, weaker treatment guidance, and policy built on incomplete information.
This isn't a response to one crisis. It's a standing prescription for the federal health evidence enterprise, not a memo for one transition. It focuses on the infrastructure for producing and using evidence, not on what the evidence should say. Every recommendation is built to make the system more independent, modern, and sustainable no matter who holds authority.
Keep health research honest and free from political interference.
Bring the country's health data systems up to date.
Fund this work steadily, and be clear about how the money is spent.
Build and keep the people who do the work.
Make sure evidence actually shapes the decisions that affect people's care.
See what each agency does, where the structure falls short, and what the Blueprint recommends.
See recommendations addressing challenges that span the federal health research system.
AcademyHealth has spent decades working across the health evidence enterprise with researchers, policymakers, funders, and health systems. We are nonpartisan, and unlike organizations that speak for one part of the system, we have no constituency to protect but the evidence itself. That independence gives us a clear view of what the system makes possible and where it is vulnerable.