Lebanon -- Two U.S. senators saw the fruits of health care research going on at Dartmouth College and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center yesterday and say they are working to include the programs in health care reform proposals being considered by Congress.

In a visit to DHMC, New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, both Democrats, heard from DHMC officials and physicians about Dartmouth's “comparative effectiveness research” and the medical center's Center of Shared Decision Making, which involves patients in decision-making. Dartmouth researchers say the processes lead to better results at lower costs.

“I don't think I've given a speech on the floor of the Senate on health care without mentioning the word Dartmouth,” Klobuchar told more than two-dozen DHMC officials, guests and members of the media in a conference room at the medical center.

Both Klobuchar and Shaheen praised the Dartmouth research and said its lessons need to be incorporated into the health care reform proposals now under consideration.

“It's important to be here because of the groundbreaking research that they are doing. It is an issue that people are very concerned about because health care affects literally everybody in the state,” Shaheen said.

Klobuchar said Dartmouth's “cutting-edge research” would help inform decisions about health care reform she and her colleagues will consider come fall.

“One of the things we think we need in legislation is incentives to reduce costs and increase quality, and this is where that research is being done,” the Minnesota senator said.

The two senators also talked with a Massachusetts man who traveled to DHMC for a second opinion about back problems. (See related story.)

The 90-minute visit, which was closed to the public, took place as the national debate over health care reform moves from Washington to the states as legislators return home for the August recess. Opponents of reform have launched sometimes belligerent attacks at public forums, here and around the country.

Shaheen aides faced health care reform opponents last week when about 40 people showed up at Grafton Town Hall and in Hampstead, N.H., carrying signs critical of health care proposals as Shaheen's case workers tried to hold one-on-one meetings with constituents.

Shaheen was in Washington, D.C., to vote to confirm Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, but in a statement last week, she said the protesters were intimidating residents who had sought help from her aides on a variety of topics.

The senators were asked yesterday about the tone of the debate and Klobuchar responded, but didn't address the protesters.

“People are looking for information. They know how important their health care is for them,” she said. “They want to make sure we keep what's good about their health care system and that we fix what's broken.”

Dartmouth's comparative effectiveness research has, for more than two decades, had physicians and researchers at DHMC, the college and Dartmouth Medical School use Medicare data to look at variations in medical resources around the United States in what's called the Dartmouth Atlas Project.

The work, now housed at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice in Centerra Park, has shown that, while the federal Medicare program spends significantly more on health care in some areas of the United States than in others, people getting more expensive care are not reaping the benefit of better health. Such disparities are holding back the nation's ability to expand health care access, Dartmouth researchers have said.

After their visit to DHMC, the senators traveled together to the Inns at Mills Falls in Meredith, N.H., to meet with business leaders there to discuss the importance of tourism to the state and national economies.

Klobuchar, a friend who this fall campaigned with Shaheen in New Hampshire, oversees the Senate subcommittee responsible for tourism. The Minnesota senator is also vacationing here with her family, she said.

Susan J. Boutwell can be reached at sboutwell@vnews.com or at (603) 727-3248.