Comparative Effectiveness: The why and the how

Comparative Effectiveness. Pharma dreads it. Doctors and patients will love it – unless it is used to limit treatment choice, which is certainly a possibility, if not a likelihood. Regardless, it’s coming, and it’s coming fast. The US government is now poised to spend $1.1 billion from the economic stimulus package to develop comparative effectiveness research in this country.
It thus behooves both non-technical and technical decision-makers in industry – pharma, biotech, and devices – to get a grip on what it is, why this is happening, and how comparative effectiveness evidence will be developed and used. For off-site sessions, a panel of experts representing both doers and users, will discuss the key implication of comparative effectiveness research: net clinical benefit vs. cost-effectiveness for funding and coverage decisions.
Attendees of this seminar will be better informed, and thus better equipped, to ride this next wave of Evidence-based Medicine. Information sources (Web and published literature) for further reading will also be provided.

1. Comparative Effectiveness: What and why
   1. definitions
   2. why decision-makers want it, and how they will use it
2. Comparative Effectiveness: Who and how
   1. which groups are leading the charge in the U.S., and globally
   2. how to perform a comparative effectiveness assessment –
      using experimental data
      1. systematic reviews
      2. meta-analysis
         1. direct comparisons
         2. indirect comparisons
            1. network meta-analysis
   3. how to perform a comparative effectiveness assessment –using observational data
      1. administrative datasets
      2. electronic medical records
3. Net clinical benefit vs. cost-effectiveness: Where are we going?