Harnessing the power of real-life data

The total quantity of medical information available is expanding at an unprecedented pace, yet there remains a shortage of data to help clinicians and healthcare systems make choices among treatments and strategies. With rising healthcare costs, the need to optimize resource utilization is crucial. Comparative effectiveness research (CER) is emerging as a tool to facilitate head-to-head comparisons and provides evidence-based answers to important clinical questions. Many forms of CER exist, from randomized controlled trials and prospective clinical registries to retrospective studies and systematic reviews. Information from CER can be provided about clinical endpoints, patient-reported outcomes, and economic endpoints. Confounding is a major obstacle to CER and may be minimized through the use of statistical techniques such as stratification, matching, and propensity scores. By generating and synthesising evidence of the harms and benefits of alternative treatments or interventions, CER can help consumers, clinicians, purchasers, and policy-makers to make informed decisions that will help improve healthcare at both the individual and population levels.
Source: European Journal of Heart Failure Supplements - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: Articles Source Type: research