Principles of comparative effectiveness research are the basis for comparing the results of gene-directed interventions with those of standard interventions (36).
The authors also provide a critical narrative of the relevant medical literature with an emphasis on outcomes of comparative effectiveness research, and appraise the percutaneous methods compared to surgery in the context of evidence-based practice and future research studies.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, as a senator, was an early champion of "comparative effectiveness research".
Supporters of comparative effectiveness reviews include many medical researchers, consumer groups, unions and insurers.
Dr. Berwick has endorsed the use of "comparative effectiveness" research to determine which treatments work best.
Medicare should also be allowed to use the results of comparative effectiveness research to set reimbursement policies favoring the best treatments.
Mr. Coelho, a former House Democratic whip who resigned in 1989 over a controversial junk-bond investment, says his organization does not oppose the concept of comparative effectiveness.
This is just the kind of "comparative effectiveness" research that the national health care reforms seek to promote.
Wherever they went, Dr. Helfand said, he and his colleagues met resistance from drug makers and some patient groups that had rallied to the companies' side, who raised the same arguments that critics of comparative effectiveness are raising today.
But he added that the whole point of comparative effectiveness was to move medical practice beyond the limits of such trials, by looking at a broader range of evidence that includes the actual experience of patients undergoing treatment.
"He believes you need to set up this über-bureaucracy — the institute of comparative effectiveness — which we'll put smart people in, and they will design the metrics and the processes on how medicine is to be practiced," Ryan said.
