Federal Panel Defines Comparative Effectiveness Research

The panel said that: "Comparative effectiveness research is the conduct and synthesis of research comparing the benefits and harms of different interventions and strategies to prevent, diagnose, treat and monitor health conditions in 'real world' settings. The purpose of this research is to improve health outcomes by developing and disseminating evidence based information to patients, clinicians, and other decision makers, responding to their expressed needs, about which interventions are most effective for which patients under specific circumstances."

The council also recommended that:

• Research should focus on the needs of priority populations, such as racial and ethnic minorities, persons with disabilities, persons with multiple chronic conditions, the elderly, and children


• Research should be in specific high impact health arenas, such as medical and assistive devices, surgical procedures, behavioral interventions, and prevention


• Investments should be made in data infrastructure to link current data sources to help answer CER questions