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The Institute of Medicine (IOM)
Forum on Drug Discovery, Development, and Translation
and
The George Washington University Medical Center
Department of Health Policy

Present the Third Meeting in the Forum’s
Biomedical Science & Policy Discussion Series

Comparative Effectiveness: State of the Art and Future Direction

Thursday, February 21, 2008  12:00 – 1:30 p.m.
Hotel Palomar, 2121 P Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037

Click Here for Agenda, Audio Webcast, and Slides

Medical innovation is yielding an ever-expanding arsenal of drugs and other therapies, which can translate into a bewildering set of treatment choices for physicians and patients.  Little is known, or widely understood, about the relative effectiveness of these choices.  Comparative effectiveness research can provide invaluable guidance in both clinical and coverage-related decision making.  While comparative effectiveness research is in wide practice, its use is scattered and inconsistent—for example, in federal agencies, private health plans, drug companies—and its adoption into clinical practice is slow.  While comparative effectiveness is clearly growing in importance, there remain technical and policy-related questions about how comparative effectiveness is conducted, disseminated and utilized:

• Who should conduct comparative effectiveness? 
• How should studies be prioritized?
• How should the studies be designed and conducted?
• How should the results be communicated? 
• How should comparative effectiveness results be integrated into clinical practice? 
• What should the government's role be?

A distinguished panel addressed these questions from diverse perspectives, and discussed additional questions raised by the audience. The panel included:

Mark McClellan, Moderator
Brookings Institute

Carolyn Clancy
Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality    

Peter Orszag
Congressional Budget Office

Richard Justman
UnitedHealth Group

This luncheon was free and open to the public. 

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