#TBT: Expanding Your Horizons: CER Continuing Education Certificate Program

As part of our “Throwback Thursday” blog series, we’re taking a look at a topic that’s currently in the news and tagging it with previous research, videos or commentaries in a relevant way. As the saying goes, “what’s old is new again” – and we hope you enjoy our wonky twist on #TBT.

With increased private and public funding for comparative effectiveness research (CER), there will be a greater amount of data that is drawn not only from randomized controlled trials, but also from a wide range of other study designs (observational studies, simulations, or comparisons between studies) and sources (registries, administrative claims, or electronic medical records).

To provide greater uniformity and transparency in the evaluation and use of CER and other evidence for coverage and health care decision-making, the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP), the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR), the National Pharmaceutical Council joined forces as the CER Collaborative to develop tools, resources, and training materials to aid formulary decision-makers, the researchers who are developing information for use by those decision-makers, the biopharmaceutical industry, and other health care stakeholders.

The CER Collaborative now offers a CER Continuing Education Certificate Program, a 19-hour online, Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education-approved course. The program introduces the CER Collaborative’s online tools that are designed to assess individual studies and synthesize the evidence from multiple studies. To learn more about the program, join AMCP for their webinar, “Expanding Your Horizons: CER Continuing Education Certificate Program,” on Wednesday, July 30, at 2:00 pm ET. This webinar also will provide information about the new CER Certificate webinar-based option for those who cannot attend the in-person, final session of the program at the AMCP Nexus in Boston to complete the training.

This isn’t the first time that NPC has partnered with members of AMCP and ISPOR. NPC Chief Science Officer Robert Dubois, MD, PhD, provided the pharmaceutical industry’s perspective of CER (and our Throwback Thursday pick) in another AMCP 2011 continuing education activity, “Three Perspectives on the Impact of Comparative Effectiveness Research,” which was presented via a live satellite symposium at their Educational Conference.

The course was supplemented with a Journal of Managed Care Pharmacy monograph to educate stakeholders about how CER could affect them; how to integrate it; and how to conduct it effectively. In Dr. Dubois’ article, “Looking at CER From the Pharmaceutical Industry Perspective,” he makes several points about the implications of CER:

• As CER data proliferate, questions are being raised about who can access the data, who can discuss it, and in what forums. Regulations place different communication restrictions on the pharmaceutical industry than on other health care stakeholders, which creates a potential inequality.
• Another CER consideration will be the tendency to apply average results to individuals, even if not every individual experiences the average result.
• Policymakers should implement CER findings carefully with a goal toward accommodating flexibility.
• A final impact to consider is whether greater expectations for CER will have a negative or positive effect on incentives for drug innovation. In some cases, CER may increase development costs or decrease market size. In other cases, better targeting of trial populations could result in lower development costs.

You can read the two other perspectives provided in this 2011 continuing education activity:

• Looking at CER from Medicare’s Perspective
• Looking at CER from the Managed Care Organization Perspective

Note: The CER Continuing Education Certificate Course is no longer being offered as of July 2018. For further information, please contact [email protected].