About the Healthcare Assessment Research Branch

The Healthcare Assessment Research Branch (HARB) is one of three branches in NCI's Healthcare Delivery Research Program.

Our mission is to promote population-based research on demographic, social, economic, and health system factors as they relate to providing screening, treatment, and survivorship services for cancer.

The Branch carries out its mission by assessing:

  • cancer-related health services utilization and outcomes among individuals in the general population and among selected population subgroups;
  • the dissemination and effective delivery of cancer-related health services by community-based health care providers and health care delivery organizations; and
  • the role of economic factors related to the equitable, efficient, and effective provision of cancer-related health services.

Furthermore, the Branch works towards its mission by developing, improving, and disseminating:

  • data resources to support policy-relevant research on economic and health services research questions across the cancer continuum; and
  • methods and techniques of economics and health services research related to cancer.

The ultimate purpose of this research is to improve cancer outcomes, reduce cancer-related health disparities, and reduce the burden of cancer to patients, their families, and society.

Current Initiatives

Meet Our Staff

The Healthcare Assessment Research Branch (HARB) fosters research that looks at how demographic, social, economic, and health system factors influence access to and provision of cancer care in the population.

Meet the HARB Staff
Last Updated: 18 Jan, 2023