The goal of the workshop that is the topic of this summary report the role of purchasers and payers in the clinical research enterprise was to examine how purchasers and payers interact with the various components of the clinical research enterprise and to understand their perspective on what the vision of the enterprise should be. The role of purchasers and payers in the clinical research enterprise workshop summary institute of medicine us clinical research roundtable tunis s korn a ommaya a editors washington dc national academies press us 2002 in a workshop organized by the clinical research roundtable representatives from purchaser organizations employers payer organizations health plans and . This workshop focused specifically on what purchasers employers and payers insurance companies want from the clinical research enterprise what their role is with respect to the enterprise and what they can contribute to it. The topic of this workshop the role of purchasers and payers in the clinical research enterprise is critical to the quality of patient care in the sense that the quality of care depends on the quality of information underlying health care decisions without high quality empirical information to support decision making in health policy and clinical care the quality of patient care cannot . The goal is to understand how the clinical research enterprise can better serve purchasers as they strive to provide high quality affordable health care benefits to employees retirees and dependents during this session purchasers will elucidate what they need from the clinical research enterprise and outline their contributions to it