Leading Researchers Outline Principles for Planning & Conduct of CER

A new set of principles developed by a group of leading researchers could help to ensure more consistency in how comparative effectiveness research (CER) is planned and conducted. These guiding principles were published today in the September issue of The Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research.

The principles and paper were developed by Bryan R. Luce, PhD, MBA, United BioSource Corporation and the University of Washington; Michael F. Drummond, PhD, University of York; Robert W. Dubois, MD, PhD, National Pharmaceutical Council; Peter J. Neumann, ScD, Tufts Medical Center and Tufts University School of Medicine; Bengt Jonsson, PhD, Stockholm School of Economics (Sweden); Uwe Siebert, MD, MPH, MSc, ScD, University of Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology (Austria) and Harvard School of Public Health; and J. Sanford Schwartz, MD, Wharton School of Business and Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.

To arrive at these best research practice principles, the researchers examined existing health technology assessment principles and engaged multiple CER experts and stakeholders for feedback.

The resulting 13 principles include ensuring that the research objectives are clear, being transparent in how the research is conducted, involving stakeholders, including especially relevant decision makers, in a meaningful way throughout the research process, considering perspectives and interests from a wide range of stakeholders, using relevant comparators, and evaluating relevant outcomes and the impact of individual treatment effects on patients. The researchers acknowledge that “no one study will necessarily be able to fully meet every principle to the letter,” but that CER should always endeavor to fulfill, and never ignore, their intent.

Watch Dr. Peter Neumann, professor and director at the Center for the Evaluation of Value and Risk in Health at Tufts Medical Center, discuss the CER principles.