CER

Other Leading Articles and Resources

Analysis of Comparative Effectiveness
RAND Compare
Overview covers nine performance dimensions against which comparative effectiveness may be measured: spending, waste, patient experience, coverage, operational feasibility, consumer financial risk, reliability, health, and capacity.

CER Inventory
The Partnership to Improve Patient Care provides this inventory of federally sponsored comparative effectiveness research projects.

Comparative Effectiveness Research: Health Policy Brief
Health Affairs | October 5, 2010
This helpful overview looks at the issues, the history, the law, the key concerns, and next steps.

Comparative Effectiveness Research and Medicare: Gail Wilensky's View
Health Affairs Blog | February 2, 1011
Gail Wilensky of Project Hopereacts to a proposal from Steven Pearson and Peter Bach proposing a new Medicare payment model incorporating CER.

Comparative Effectiveness Research and Medicare: Sean Tunis' View
Health Affairs Blog | February 2, 2011
Sean Tunis of the Center for Medical Technology Policy shares his thoughts on a proposal from Pearson and Bach proposing a new Medicare payment model incorporating CER.

Comparative Effectiveness: How Health Plans and Employers Will Translate Evidence Into Practice
Naomi Aronson, BCBS | September 14, 2010
In her presentation at The Second Annual Comparative Effectiveness Summit, Dr. Aronson looks at how CER improves the evidence for decision-making and how it's actually used in those decisions.

Comparative Effectiveness Resource Center
ECRI Institute
The ECRI Institute provides an educational site intended to increase understanding of this complicated topic. Resources include position statements by stakeholder groups, national policy conference recordings, and perspectives from leading experts.

Finding What Works in Health Care: Standards for Systematic Reviews
Institute of Medicine | March 23, 2011
The IOM consensus report recommends standards for systematic reviews of the comparative effectiveness of medical or surgical interventions.

HTA 101: Introduction to Health Technology Assessment
National Library of Medicine | January 2004
A detailed and comprehensive primer on HTA by Clifford S. Goodman of the Lewin Group.

Health Policy By Comparison
CQ Health Beat | August 16, 2010
Rebecca Adams offers an analysis of the integration of CER into the health care system. She provides case studies on the effects of CER and details about PCORI.

How CER Could Pay for Itself--Insights from Vertebral Fracture Treatments
NEJM | April 13, 2011
Elshaug and Garber explored the history of procedures to treat pain and disability associated with osteoporotic-vertebral fractures, finding that rigorous CER questioned the benefits and safety of the procedures. Reducing the procedures by 80% would save $725 million annually.

How Medicare Could Use Comparative Effectiveness Research in Deciding on New Coverage and Reimbursement
Health Affairs | February 2011
Steven Pearson of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review and Peter Bach at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center propose a payment model that incorporates CER to encourage Medicare to pay equally for services that provide comparable patient outcomes.

How Best to Engage Patients, Doctors, and Other Stakeholders in Designing Comparative Effectiveness Studies
Health Affairs | October 2010
Through a qualitative assessment of case studies, the authors identify five key principles for effectively engaging a broad coalition of stakeholders in CER research intended to improve health care and control costs--1)ensure balance among participating stakeholders, 2) get participants to buy into the process as well as understand their roles, 3) provide neutral experts to facilitate research discussions, 4) establish connections among participants, and 5) keep them engaged throughout the process.

Identifying and Eliminating Roadblocks to Comparative-Effectiveness Research
NEJM | July 8, 2010
Experts involved in the CATT trial discuss some of the roadblocks that the trial brought to light.

Lessons for Health Technology Assessment: It Is Not Only About the Evidence
Value in Health | September 2, 2009
Peter J. Neumann of Tufts Medical Center explores the role of non-evidentiary factors in the differences in HTA systems around the world.

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute--Promoting Better Information, Decisions, and Health
A. Eugene Washington, MD and Steven H. Lipstein, MHA for NEJM | September 2011
PCORI's board chair and vice chair describe the efforts of the board and methodology committee to build a world-class, patient-centered research institute from scratch.

The State of Comparative Effectiveness Research and the Environment for Decision Making
National Pharmaceutical Council | April 2011
A survey of stakeholders explored where they believe we are today with CER.

What is Comparative Effectiveness Research
AHRQ
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) discusses the CER research process, the practical benefits of this research, and whether or not it can be trusted.

What is Comparative Effectiveness Research and What Will It Mean for Patients, Physicians, and Payors?
CMTP | July 30,2010
This whitepaper, distributed at the CMTP conference in July, focuses on various aspects of CER, addresses questions on the differences between CER and traditional clinical research, and methods by which CER should be carried out.

Cost Effectiveness

Comparative Effectiveness Research: From Clinical Information to Economic Incentives
Health Affairs | October 2010
James C. Robinson writes about "the mechanisms through which new evidence actually will influence patient practice, patient preference, and manufacturer investment."

Health Reform and Cost Cutting
The New York Times | October 19, 2010
David Leondhart discusses the potential role of CER cost cutting in the new health care law.

How Medicare Could Use Comparative Effectiveness Research in Deciding on New Coverage and Reimbursement
Health Affairs | October, 2010
Steven Pearson and Peter Bach propose a payment model for Medicare that would incorporate CER to encourage Medicare to pay equally for services that provide comparable patient outcome.

How Much is a Life Worth?
BBC News | August 24, 2010
Health economist Zack Cooper talks about the tough job of making coverage decisions based on cost and attempts to explain why NICE rejected cancer drug Avastin.

The Impact of CER on Health and Health Care Spending
Tomas J. Philipson | Septebmer 14, 2010
At The Second Annual Conference on Comparative Effectiveness, Philipson gave this presentation on the predicted effects of CER on cost-effectiveness of care, a case study for Medicare coverage for antipsychotics, and a wish list for PCORI.

Is the United States Ready for QALYs?
Health Affairs | October 2009
Peter Neumann and Dan Greenberg review the debate and use of QALYs in other countries, and the prospect of using them in the U.S.

The Role of Costs In Comparative Effectiveness Research
Health Affairs | October 2010
Alan Garber and Harold Sox argue that investigating the comparative value of interventions is necessary for decision makers who are attempt to raise quality of care while reining in health spending.

Shorter Lives, Less Prosperity: The Impact of Comparative Effectiveness Research on Health and Wealth
CMPI | May 2011
John Vernon, PhD, and Bob Goldberg, PhD explore the potential costs of CER.

Use of Comparative Effectiveness Research in Drug Coverage and Pricing Decisions: A Six Country Comparison
The Commonwealth Fund | July 2, 2010
Corinna Sorenson of the London School of Economics examines the use of CER in six countries—Denmark, England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden.

CER Policy Organizations

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality(AHRQ)
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) mission is to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans. As 1 of 12 agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services, AHRQ supports research that helps people make more informed decisions and improves the quality of health care services.

Center for Medical Technology Policy (CMTP)
CMTP is a private, non-profit organization that provides a neutral forum in which patients, clinicians, payers, manufacturers, and researchers can work together to design and implement prospective, real world studies to inform health care decisions. The primary goal of CMTP is to improve the process for generating reliable and credible information about the real world risks, benefits, and costs of promising new medical technologies.

ECRI Institute
Nonprofit organization dedicated to “bringing the discipline of applied scientific research to discover which medical procedures, devices, drugs, and processes are best, all to enable you to improve patient care.”

EUnetHTA
Supports effective HTA collaboration in Europe. Creation of collaboration was a response to a request from the EU Commission and EU Member States in the Work Plan 2009 of the Health Programme to continue fostering the development of HTA in Europe. Meant to inform policy decisions and connect public national HTA agencies, research institutions, and health ministires—enabling an exchange of information and support of policy decisions by member states. Over 60 partners—reflects government focused vision for the usefulness of HTA.

Health Technology Assessment international (HTAi)
HTAi is the global scientific and professional society for all those who produce, use, or encounter HTA. HTAi embraces all stakeholders, including researchers, agencies, policymakers, industry, academia, health service providers, and patients/consumers, and acts as a neutral forum for collaboration and the sharing of information and expertise. With members from 59 countries and six continents, HTAi is a thriving global network.

International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR)
ISPOR promotes the science of pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research and facilitates the translation of this research into useful information for healthcare decision-makers to ensure that society allocates scarce health care resources wisely, fairly, and efficiently.

Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER)
ICER's mission is to lead innovation in comparative effectiveness research through methods that integrate considerations of clinical benefit and economic value. Through a unique collaboration with patients, clinicians, manufacturers, insurers and other healthcare stakeholders, ICER develops tools to support patient decisions and medical policy that share the goal of achieving maximum value for every healthcare dollar.

Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC)
PIPC exists to advance proposals for comparative effectiveness research (CER) that are focused on supporting providers and patients with the information they need, improving health care quality and supporting continued medical progress.