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Mathematica’s Center on Health Care Effectiveness
Identifies Comparative Effectiveness Research Challenges
Federal Health Reform Initiative Raises the Stakes
Media Advisory: July 15, 2010
Contact: Amy Berridge, (609) 945-3378; Eugene Rich, (202) 250-3544
Issue: Interest in evaluating which health care interventions work best under what circumstances has surged in recent years as health care spending has risen. Integrating comparative effectiveness research (CER) into clinical practice has increasingly been touted as a tool to address this issue. In fact, a CER initiative was proposed as part of the recent health reform bill.
Brief: In its first issue brief in a new series, the Center on Health Care Effectiveness at Mathematica Policy Research discusses CER and health reform. The brief examines the status of four policy challenges relevant to the successful implementation of comparative effectiveness research (CER): funding mechanisms, how the research gets used, how the enterprise is directed, and perhaps most fundamentally, the proper scope of the research. The authors note that important questions remain whose resolution may prove critical to the future role of this research in U.S. health care.
The Center on Health Care Effectiveness is a resource for policymakers, the public, and other stakeholders offering broad-based expertise and objective evidence to inform today’s most difficult health care decisions.
Quote: “This brief takes a closer look at some of the controversies and questions that are going to arise with the new comparative effectiveness research efforts funded by the Affordable Care Act,” said Eugene Rich, M.D., co-author of the brief, director of CHCE, and a senior fellow at Mathematica. “Resolving these issues will be important to the future success of CER in the U.S.”
Issue Brief: "Politics and Policy of Comparative Effectiveness: Looking Back, Looking Ahead." Topics in Health Care Effectiveness #1. Eugene C. Rich and Elizabeth Docteur, June 2010.
About Mathematica: Mathematica Policy Research, a nonpartisan research firm, provides a full range of research and data collection services, including program evaluation and policy research, survey design and data collection, research assessment and interpretation, and program performance/data management, to improve public well-being. Its clients include federal and state governments, foundations, and private-sector and international organizations. The employee-owned company, with offices in Princeton, N.J., Ann Arbor, Mich., Cambridge, Mass., Chicago, Ill., Oakland, Calif., and Washington, D.C., has conducted some of the most important studies of education, health care, international, disability, family support, employment, nutrition, and early childhood policies and programs.