Comparative Effectiveness Research & Socio-economic Impact

Leaders: Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), Belgian Health Care Knowledge Centre (KCE)

Objectives:
To promote methodologies for efficient comparison of treatment strategies, and to assess the medical, social and economic impact of these options.

Description of the work:
Comparative effectiveness research (CER) has been defined by the Institute of Medicine as the generation and synthesis of evidence that compares the benefits and harms of alternative methods to prevent, diagnose, treat and monitor a clinical condition, or to improve the delivery of care. The purpose of CER is to assist consumers, clinicians, purchasers and policy makers to make informed decisions that will improve health care at both individual and societal levels.

This activity will involve systematic reviews on methods used in CER and the development of guidelines on pre-trial and post-trial procedures.  In additional, research methods will be developed to measure the medical value and socio-economic impact of clinical research in general and CER in particular.