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...

Recent Blog Posts

Tony Coelho Discusses Patient Care with Former HHS Secretary
February 3, 2012 |

On Tuesday night, PIPC Chairman Tony Coelho joined former HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson at the University of Charleston in West Virginia for a speaker series titled "Who Decides Patient Treatments" to discuss the future of health care in the United States.

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PCORI Releases their Draft Priorities
January 30, 2012 |

PCORI released a draft of their National Priorities for Research and Research Agenda for public comment. The PCORI Board, which is responsible for funding research, is asking for a 55 day public comment period to discuss and solicit feedback from patients, caregivers, professionals, and the general public on the research priorities.

In the draft, PCORI prioritized five broad research areas:

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Differentiating Patients, Consumers, and Patient Advocacy Organizations
October 18, 2011 |

When conducting Comparative Effectiveness Research it is crucial to understand the differences between the players involved in the process. In his remarks at the  2nd Annual Forum on Achieving Patient centeredness , Marc Boutin, executive vice president and COO at the National Health Council, discussed the important differences between the three major players in the process: the patient, the consumer, and the patient advocacy organization. He stated that many times when the patient is discussed they are not defined.

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Individualized Patients, Personalized Care

Every patient is different, so it is very important for CER research to be designed, communicated and used in ways that recognize individual patient differences. CER typically focuses on population averages, not differences in individuals. CER research should reflect the differences in patients based on factors such as genetics, health status, and their environment. This will help ensure that CER reflects patients’ individual circumstances rather than encouraging one-size fits all solutions based on averages.

Support personalized medicine and other advances that can help improve patient care. The emerging science of personalized medicine is changing the way we think about comparative effectiveness research. Advances in genetics and other fields like health information technology are giving physicians powerful new tools to understand which treatments are likely to work best on which patients. These advances hold potential to improve patient care and health care value. If comparative effectiveness research is not designed and used in ways that reflect this, it will stymie progress in personalized medicine and discourage continued medical innovation. Comparative effectiveness programs should facilitate the ability of physicians to tailor treatments to the needs of individual patients based on genetic information and other factors.

Click here to learn more about personalized medicine and what it means for health care.