New: The supply of hospital beds and doctors varies widely from region to region across the United States, and the variations have nothing to do with the level of care patients want or need, according to a new report from the Dartmouth Atlas Project. Hospital and Physician Capacity Update, released April 2, 2009, analyzes current hospital and physician capacity as well as trends over a 10-year period, and reveals irrational distribution of these valuable and expensive health care resources. The report finds similar wide and persistent variations in capacity in 2006 to those that existed in 1996, generally in the same places.

Recently released: The Dartmouth Atlas Project has two new reports available, both concerning Medicare spending. Health Care Spending, Quality and Outcomes focuses on what the Dartmouth Atlas Project has learned about the relationship between regional differences in spending and the quality of care over two decades of research, and the implications for efforts to reform the U.S. health care system. The Policy Implications of Variations in Medicare Spending Growth reviews variations in spending growth across U.S. regions and the implications of these findings for health policy. It also provides detailed tables on Medicare per capita spending levels and growth rates for all U.S. hospital referral regions and states.

Tracking the Care of Patients with Severe Chronic Illness: The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care 2008

This edition of the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care describes how care for Medicare beneficiaries with serious chronic illness varies across U.S. states, regions and hospitals. The focus is on Medicare beneficiaries who have severe chronic illnesses and are in their last two years of life. The 2008 edition both updates earlier analyses to encompass more recent data and expands the scope to include all sectors of care covered by the Medicare program: acute inpatient hospital care, outpatient services, skilled nursing and long-term hospital care, home health care and hospice.

The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care 2008 also takes another important step - it goes beyond documenting. It proposes new ways of thinking about how to achieve better care coordination and reduce the overuse of acute care hospital services. It also offers concrete recommendations on the ways different stakeholders can use the new Dartmouth Atlas data - from choosing the right provider to reforming the U.S. health care system.

You may purchase a copy; download the report, Executive Summary, or press release; use the interactive data tools; and download hospital performance reports by state.

Previous editions of the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care can be obtained by clicking on the Atlases & Reports link. The data tables that accompanied many of these publications on disk are also available.

From time to time we report on such topics as how new surgical procedures and techniques impact overall rates of surgery, or changes in rates of surgical procedures or geographic patterns of utilization that appear to be exceptional, either because the rates have changed more than would be expected, or because the rates are remarkably higher or lower than the state and national averages. These special reports are also available at the Atlases & Reports link.

Research papers by Atlas investigators published in peer-reviewed journals are available by clicking on the Research Articles link. Some of our most seminal papers are highlighted at the top of the page; a comprehensive bibliography is also available.

An archive of lectures and testimony delivered by Atlas investigators is available by clicking on Presentations. "Windows on Health Care: The Faces of Variations," an hour-long video program discussing the history and importance of variations, is also available from that link.