The State of CER and the Environment for Health Care Decision Making
This month, NPC released its third annual survey on stakeholders’ views on comparative effectiveness research (CER), “The State of Comparative Effectiveness Research and the Environment for Health Care Decision Making,” providing insights into their perspectives and expectations. NPC was joined by Dr. Lisa Simpson, president and CEO of AcademyHealth, and Dr. Joe Selby, executive director of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), on a webinar to discuss the survey findings and implications.
When NPC first conducted this CER research landscape survey in 2010, the health care environment was quite different. At that time, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) had just been signed into law, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) board of governors had recently been appointed, and there were more questions than answers about how CER would impact health care in the U.S.
Not long before our third survey went into the field, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the ACA. Since then, the federal government and states have been moving full steam ahead on setting up health exchanges, and PCORI has developed its research priorities and methods for CER.
The range of survey findings revealed interesting changes and trends in expectations around CER research, including a slight dip this year in the number of people who say that CER is important to pursue. That number fell five points, perhaps reflecting more tempered optimism as CER transitions from an abstract concept to a practical reality. Yet, 90 percent of respondents still see CER as important, which is one reason NPC will continue to lead research and analysis in this area.