Keeping Our Eye on the CER Ball

Until the cherry blossoms begin to bloom later next month, most of the water cooler conversations in Washington will focus on the federal budget. What agencies and programs will be funded, and at what levels, are questions that will be top of mind until Congress votes to approve a federal budget.

NPC doesn’t lobby, so we don’t get involved in the negotiations over what should—or shouldn’t—be funded. But we do have some ideas to proffer when it comes to keeping our “eye on the ball.”

There is near-universal consensus that we need improved decision-making in health care–-focused on quality, taking the needs of patients into account, and yielding value–to set ourselves on the right course. Countless studies have shown that better information leads to improved health outcomes and potentially lower costs as patients receive the treatment that’s best for them, keeping them healthier and enabling them to lead productive lives.

There is no doubt that comparative effectiveness research (CER), thoughtful and well-implemented, is a critical step in achieving those outcomes. Efforts across the spectrum, but particularly those supported by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the National Institutes for Health (NIH), are foundational to building knowledge, informing decision-making, and positively impacting the lives of every American. Where we fall short, however, is in the follow up, because we don’t adequately examine the impact of this work. We need to show whether the research leads to beneficial changes in patient outcomes or clinical practice. Doing so would help researchers understand when their studies did and did not affect decisions or processes, and it also would provide evidence that CER shows a return on its investment.

The current environment of budgetary angst probably won’t be the last one we see in Washington. We hope that, as a research community, we focus on demonstrating the return on investment of efforts to deepen understanding and improve decision making. In doing so, policy makers can be appropriately assured that CER is delivering on its promise to improve health outcomes.