Blue Shield of California Foundation Awards $3.12 Million to 14 Nonprofit Organizations; $1.7 Million Directed to Programs Evaluating Comparative Effectiveness of New Medical Technologies, Devices and Procedures.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Blue Shield of California Foundation today announced that it is making grants of $3.12 million to 14 nonprofit organizations that are working in California to increase access to health care, promote evidence-based clinical best practices, advance the use of medical and information technology, and combat domestic violence.

These grants bring total 2006 foundation giving to $7.26 million. Of the grants announced today, $1.7 million will be directed to organizations seeking to develop and share information on the comparative effectiveness of new medical technologies, devices, and procedures, as well as prescription drugs.

"Developing and effectively communicating information about the relative effectiveness of new medical technologies and treatments is critical to improving the quality of health care in California," said Crystal Hayling, president of the Blue Shield of California Foundation. "These grants reflect our continuing commitment to help equip doctors throughout the state with the information they need to provide increasingly effective care for their patients."

Of the $3.12 million in grants:

--$675,000 will be directed to the Oakland-based Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA) for a demonstration project in the Los Angeles and Orange County regions designed to produce data and other information that will help speed the adoption and use of new and effective cardiovascular and orthopedic medical devices throughout the state.

--$430,000 will be directed to Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Inc., the oldest nonprofit health plan in New England, to establish methods for producing broadly accepted clinical and cost-effectiveness appraisals of medical innovations. The project also will involve the San Francisco-based Center for Medical Technology Policy and be managed from a new Center for Clinical and Economic Review at Harvard Medical School.

--$410,000 will fund a program at the Health Technology Center of San Francisco to improve the coordination of, and build capacity for, prospective clinical effectiveness research and medical technology policy in California and the nation. The goal of this effort is to help improve the quality and efficiency of health care by providing better information about promising but unproven medical technologies to health care decision makers.

--$175,000 will go to the California Society for Thoracic Surgeons to develop and share information on best practices in cardiac surgery, intervention and care with California hospitals and cardiac surgeons.

Also included in the grants announced today is a $300,000 donation to the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, based at Stanford, to help convene a multi-disciplinary group of experts that will study and report on issues related to creating an effective and equitable health care financing system that can lead to universal coverage.

The Blue Shield of California Foundation was formed by Blue Shield of California, a not-for-profit corporation with more than 3.3 million members, 4,300 employees and 20 offices throughout California. The Blue Shield of California Foundation provides charitable contributions, conducts research and supports programs with an emphasis on reducing the number of uninsured, using technology to promote health and preventing domestic violence. For more information, visit the Blue Shield of California website at www.mylifepath.com or the Foundation at www.blueshieldcafoundation.org.