ICYMI: CER Articles of Interest

With thousands of peer-reviewed journal articles published each month, it’s nearly impossible to stay on top of all the articles you need to read. That’s why we’ve highlighted a handful of articles concerning comparative effectiveness research (CER) that we wanted to make sure you didn’t miss.

• Special Issue: Methods for CER, PCOR, and QI Using EHR Data in a Learning Health System. eGEMs. January 2014. In this special issue of eGEMs (Generating Evidence & Methods to improve patient outcomes), papers address “the methodological developments needed to advance the national dialogue on the use of electronic clinical data to conduct CER, support quality improvement and to improve outcomes in a learning health care system.”
• Zurovac, J; et al. Using Multifactorial Experiments For Comparative Effectiveness Research in Physician Practices with Electronic Health Records. eGEMs. December 30, 2013. This eGems article explores the potential for multifactorial experiments paired with electronic health record data to “help providers conduct rapid-cycle comparative effectiveness research and examine alternative ways of implementing care.”
• Danforth, KN, et al. Comparative Effectiveness Topics from a Large, Integrated Delivery System. The Permanente Journal. Fall 2013. Clinical and operational leaders in Kaiser Permanente identify 95 high priority CER questions directly relevant to care delivery in a large, US integrated health care system.
• Lipska, KJ; Krumholz, HM. Viewpoint: Comparing Diabetes Medications: Where Do We Set the Bar? JAMA Internal Medicine. December 23, 2013. It might not be feasible to study the risk of long-term complications related to Type 2 diabetes mellitus by using CER, according to the authors of this journal article. Instead, they explore potential alternatives to CER to address questions about diabetes and treatment options.
• Chastek, B; et al. Comparative Effectiveness of TNF Blockers in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients. American Journal of Managed Care. December 4, 2013. This study, published in the American Journal of Managed Care, evaluates “the association of dose escalation with clinical outcomes and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) blocker costs among patients with moderate to severe RA treated with adalimumab, etanercept or infliximab in community-based US practice.”
• Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research. January 2014. The January issue of the Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research includes articles about the use of CER in mental health care policy and practice; key CER questions that remain unanswered (a column by NPC Chief Science Officer Dr. Robert Dubois); risks and benefits of CER in preterm infants; and much more.
• Tunis, SR. Lack of Evidence for Clinical and Health Policy Decisions. BMJ. December 16, 2013. Dr. Sean Tunis, founder, president, and chief executive officer of the Center for Medical Technology Policy, offers a “potential explanation for the massive amount of uncertainty in healthcare and, more importantly, some insights regarding possible strategies to improve the quality and relevance of future primary research.”
• Danda, D. Next Generation Evidence-Based Medicine: Individualised, Personalised and Humanised. International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases. December 31, 2013. The author takes a look at next generation evidence-based medicine from a different angle: individualized, personalized and humanized.
• O’Hare, AM; Hotchkiss, JR; Tamura, MK; et al. Interpreting Treatment Effects From Clinical Trials in the Context of Real-World Risk Information: End-Stage Renal Disease Prevention in Older Adults. JAMA Internal Medicine. January 13, 2014. This JAMA study examines whether the results of a clinical trial in younger patients could be extrapolated to a real-world population of older patients with chronic kidney disease.