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...
For journalists and other media professionals
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:
Below: PIPC Chairman Tony Coelho's recent speech on patient centered CER. The speech was delivered on Tuesday, June 22, 2010 at the Alliance for Specialty Medicine's “Capitol Hill Advocacy Conference,” in Washington, D.C.
A new Health Affairs article concludes, based on focus groups and interviews, that "consumers will revolt if evidence-based efforts are perceived as rationing or as a way to deny them needed treatment."
You don't need to look any further than public reaction to the U.S. Preventive Service Task Force's updated recommendations on mammography screening to see the proof of this.
How should policy-makers react? Should they conclude that consumers, and even more so, patients, cannot be relied on to make evidence-based decisions, and therefore these decisions need to be made for them? Or should they conclude that evidence-based models of medical care and health delivery need to be carefully constructed so they have the trust and support of patients and consumers?
On Saturday, May 22, The Washington Post published my letter to the editor on the opportunity we have in CER to answer the full range of questions that are important to improving patient care and health care quality. The letter responded to a commentary from physicians Jim Yong Kim and James N. Weinstein, who called for a research program to help us learn about what works best in health care delivery and patient management.
This is just one of the important strengths of the comparative effectiveness research (CER) provisions of the healthcare reform law.
A few days ago, I posted about what I saw as one of the key lessons from the controversy over the new U.S. Preventive Services Task Force’s (USPSTF) mammography guidelines, namely, that expert panels can sometimes come to different conclusions based on the same evidence.
On Thursday, I will be joining the Alliance for Health Reform to participate in a panel discussion about choices can affect healthcare and how comparative effectiveness research (CER) should be considered by policymakers considering healthcare reform legislation.