Building useful evidence: changing the clinical research paradigm to account for comparative effectiveness research.

ABSTRACT: Comparative effectiveness research (CER) calls for substantial changes in the way clinical research is conducted, interpreted and practically applied in the USA, in order to produce useful clinical evidence. Departing from classic efficacy and effectiveness research, the evolving CER paradigm requires structural and substantive innovations that address three basic questions: what works? for whom? and in whose hands? Addressing these questions will require fundamental changes in the approach to clinical research that include: the use of active treatments (or comparators) versus placebos in the comparisons of treatments, innovative or 'alternative' research methods, the specification and a priori design of studies to account for important subgroups, accounting for the nested nature of health

SUBMITTER: Greenfield S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3619728 | biostudies-literature | 2012 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature