The Program for Healthcare Effectiveness Research (PHER) represents a continued effort at Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) to build its capacity for health outcomes and effectiveness research. This effort was initially started in 1992 in establishing the Morehouse Medical Treatment Effectiveness Center (MMEDTEC), through funding from the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR), now known as the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). MMEDTEC was established to build an infrastructure for health outcomes and effectiveness research, training, information dissemination, and technical assistance, with particular focus on African-American populations.

In 1999 MMEDTEC merged its research program and other activities with the Clinical Research Center (CRC) forming the Program for Healthcare Effectiveness Research (PHER) as one of its five research program areas. The Program for Healthcare Effectiveness Research is a well-established research program within the CRC, which conducts investigations on the effectiveness and appropriateness of health care services and procedures in improving patient outcomes.

The programs' physician, epidemiological, biostatistical, behavioral, and health economic researchers along with its board-certified practitioners, expert consultants in health services research and academic medicine, and expert advisory group have a wealth of research experience and expertise in
1.) Hypertension and related conditions and
2.) Women and infant health research and other areas of its research program. PHER has a strong technical support staff with expert competence in data collection, processing and management, mainframe and personal computing and statistical analysis.

PHER is also a recent awarded of the AHRQ excellence Centers to Eliminate Ethnic/Racial Disparities (EXCEED) Initiative. This program project grant "Access and Quality of Care for Vulnerable Black Populations" is a cornerstone of PHER. The proposed research emphasizes the identification of health care intervention opportunities and best intervention strategies for low-income African American children and chronically ill adults through an integrated, interdisciplinary team of health services researchers.