Comparative Effectiveness Research
News and Resources
The July 31, 2009 presentation to Penn Staters on Comparative Effectiveness Research by Carolyn Clancy, Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, was recorded and is available online. (It may be necessary to copy and paste the URL into your browser and install Microsoft's Silverlight to watch this one-hour video.) A PowerPoint version is also available.
AHRQ received $300 million from the Recovery Act to fund Comparative Effectiveness Research. The Secretary of HHS has another $400 million to distribute. All of this money is to be obligated by the end of 2010.
Timeline
March 19, 2009 Federal Coordinating Council was established. See links to the Council's report (Executive Summary and full report). Dr. Clancy emphasized that definitions of CER adopted by the Council and the Institute of Medicine (see below) include evaluation of the effectiveness of delivery system innovations, as well as therapeutic innovations, as appropriate topics for CER.
May 1, 2009 Due date for agency's Recovery Act plans. See AHRQ's initial plan (.pdf document) (does not include information about specific RFA's).
June 30, 2009 Due date for Institute of Medicine's report on priorities for CER. See report (especially priority list). During her talk, Dr. Clancy noted that research on a good number of these topics has already been undertaken with AHRQ funding.
July 31, 2009 Due date for AHRQ to submit operations plan for FY2009 to Congressional appropriation committees. The plan has been submitted to Congress, but has not yet been made public.
November 1, 2009 Due date for AHRQ's operations plan for FY2010.
Reports from AcademyHealth on Comparative Effectiveness Research