Case Studies

An NIH study of treatments for high blood pressure, called the ALLHAT trial, shows some of the strengths and limitations of comparative effectiveness research to improve patient care. More...

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March 2010

PIPC Applauds New Health Care Bill’s CER Language

President Obama signs off on reform that ensures proper use of comparative effectiveness research

WASHINGTON, DC – The Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC) applauded President Obama's signing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which includes provisions creating a new program for patient-centered comparative effectiveness research. 

Differing interpretations on procedure’s worth illustrate that no CER result should be final word

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A recent Wall Street Journal article about the use of stent procedures in the medical community and the reaction to it by blogger Burt Cohen, offers another illustration of the complexities of comparative research, and again shows why results should be used to inform doctors and patients, but not to impose broad “one size fits all” prescriptions that do not reflect the complexities of the science or the differences in individual patients.

Researcher knows common flaws in CER studies, dangers of result's misuse

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A recent article by Jerome Groopman, M.D, provides some valuable, first-hand insight as to what can go wrong when policy makers “give teeth” to comparative effectiveness research (CER) studies by translating results into “best practices.” Groopman’s understanding of the limitations of CER and the complexities of delivery high quality care to each patient, lead him to caution against blunt application of CER in ways that do not give physicians the ability to deviat