What Is Comparative Effectiveness Research?

What Is Comparative Effectiveness Research?

From the US AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) Web page

Comparative effectiveness research is designed to inform health-care decisions by providing evidence on the effectiveness, benefits, and harms of different treatment options. The evidence is generated from research studies that compare drugs, medical devices, tests, surgeries, or ways to deliver health care.

There are two ways that this evidence is found:

• Researchers look at all of the available evidence about the benefits and harms of each choice for different groups of people from existing clinical trials, clinical studies, and other research. These are called research reviews, because they are systematic reviews of existing evidence.
• Researchers conduct studies that generate new evidence of effectiveness or comparative effectiveness of a test, treatment, procedure, or health-care service.

Comparative effectiveness research requires the development, expansion, and use of a variety of data sources and methods to conduct timely and relevant research and disseminate the results in a form that is quickly usable by clinicians, patients, policymakers, and health plans and other payers. Seven steps are involved in conducting this research and in ensuring continued development of the research infrastructure to sustain and advance these efforts:

1. Identify new and emerging clinical interventions.
2. Review and synthesize current medical research.
3. Identify gaps between existing medical research and the needs of clinical practice.
4. Promote and generate new scientific evidence and analytic tools.
5. Train and develop clinical researchers.
6. Translate and disseminate research findings to diverse stakeholders.
7. Reach out to stakeholders via a citizens forum.

Common questions about comparative effectiveness research

Q: Why is comparative effectiveness research needed? What problem is it trying to solve?

• If you don’t get the best possible information about your treatment choices, you might not make an informed decision on what treatment is best for you.
• When you shop for a new car, phone or camera, you have lots of information about your choices. But when it comes to choosing the right medicine or the best health-care treatment, clear and dependable information can be very hard to find.
• It’s true that some treatments may not work for everyone, and that some treatments may work better for some people than others. This research can help identify the treatments that may work best for you.

Q: What are the practical benefits of comparative effectiveness research?

• You deserve the best and most objective information about treating your sickness or condition. With this research in hand, you and your doctor can work together to make the best possible treatment choices.
• For example, someone with high blood pressure might have more than a dozen medicines to choose from. Someone with heart disease might need to choose between having heart surgery or taking medicine to open a clogged artery. Reports on these topics and others include the pros and cons of all the options so that you and your doctor can make the best possible treatment decision for you or someone in your family.
• Every patient is different — different circumstances, different medical history, different values. These reports don’t tell you and your doctor which treatment to choose. Instead, they offer an important tool to help you and your doctor understand the facts about different treatments.

Related Content

Can I Trust This Information?

What Is the Research Process?

How are Comparative Effectiveness Reviews Conducted?

…and AHRQ Effective Health Care Program Links

Guides for Patients and Consumers include research reviews, research reports, and summary guides

Glossary of Terms

Personalization and Social Media Tools – These tools (as an email list)allow you to personalize your experience with the EHC Program Web site and share it with colleagues, family, and friends.

Related Articles

• Many new drugs did not have comparative effectiveness information available at time of FDA approval (eurekalert.org)
• The differences between comparative and clinical effectiveness (kevinmd.com)
• The Role of Data Mining in Cost Effectiveness Research (medicineandtechnology.com)
• The Newspeak of comparative effectiveness research (CER) (doctorrw.blogspot.com)
• CDISC Standards at Core of FDA Cross-study Clinical Trial Repository Project (prweb.com)
• National Library of Medicine Updates (aa47.wordpress.com)
• Shall I compare thee to another drug? (blogs.nature.com)

How to Read a Research Paper (and also Understand Health News Research Items)

Biomedical research results are increasingly available to the public. However, caution is urged in interpreting results. For example, be very careful to not confuse causation with association.

(A recent news item about insulin use and cancer is very controversial. Some say insulin use can cause cancer, while others insist insulin users are predisposed to cancers.)

The MedlinePlus Topic Page Understanding Medical Research has links to tutorials, overviews, and more

A sampling of links

**Increasing Knowledge — How to Read a Research Paper(Lewy Body Dementia Association)

** Clinical Research & Clinical Trials(National Institute of Child Health and Human Development)

**Making Sense of Medical News (Nemours Foundation)

Related Blog Items

“Summaries for Patients” and other plain language summaries help patients and others understand medical studies and guidelines

Related articles

• NLM released several exciting enhancements that improve users’ ability to share and consume MedlinePlus content: (jflahiff.wordpress.com)
• Improving Health Care Decisions By Putting Research Into Practice (jflahiff.wordpress.com)