Conducting comparative effectiveness research on medications: The views of a practicing epidemiologist from the other Washington

摘要

Comparative-effectiveness research (CER), which is not a new concept, has succeeded evidence-based medicine as the current fashion. In the old days of evidence-based medicine, active treatment comparators were not banned and one of the major concerns was the choice of outcomes important to and for patients. For instance, high blood pressure itself is an asymptomatic condition, but its devastating clinical complications such as a heart attack or a stroke are not. So, the two movements are similar, one succeeding the other. Perhaps the major difference is the existence of the legislative mandate (PL 111-148), which at once enables and constrains CER.