CER or Comparative Effectiveness Research has its defenders and its contradictors.
But first of all, what is the CER?
CER typically products guidelines issued from the comparison of respective harms and benefits of medicines or techniques of cure already marketed and used routinely by health care providers.
Defenders argue that this is the core of an evidence based medicine. Guidelines will save a lot of money by showing the best way to cure efficiently.
Contradictors estimate that this is the best way to sterilise the research and the development of new molecules and new procedures of treatment given that guidelines strictly forbid practitioners to welcome new therapies. Since guidelines decide the best state of the art, why care givers should worry and take the risk to try new therapies?
Beside there is the question of the quality of CER and of its independence with regard of the pharmaceutical industry. We have to keep in mind that independence with regard of industry is not automatically a warrant of quality because industry possesses a real research and development capacity.
If you want to read more on the topic of CER:
http://blog.ehesp.fr/blog/tag/comparative-effectiveness-research/
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr/htawebinars/index.html
http://www.policymed.com/2011/11/ahrq-national-resource-center-for-academic-detailing.html
Related articles
- Cleveland Clinic CEO: Comparative effectiveness will ‘chill’ innovation (medcitynews.com)
- On writing a talk about CER and PCMH (medrants.com)
