THE AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT will provide an unprecedented stimulus for translational and health services research. A $1.1 billion investment in comparative effectiveness research (CER) should produce a torrent of new information about the effectiveness of drugs, technologies, and interventions. For this to result in better, more cost-effective health care, better evidence is need...

DURING THE LAST 10 YEARS, THE USE OF ROBOTICassisted surgery has substantially increased, beginning with urologic procedures and expanding to include gynecologic procedures and many others. Robotic-assisted surgery is a type of minimally invasive procedure that in fact facilitates laparoscopic surgery. Both approaches provide benefits compared with open surgery, including smaller incisions, sho...

T comparative-effectiveness research (CER) movement has sparked an important debate about who may communicate research findings, for what purposes, and using what methodologic standards.1-3 CER is intended to inform discussions about what works in health care. Much of the information comes from research using retrospective databases and quasi-experimental designs rather than randomized clinical...

Contact me when new articles are published in these topic areas.

THE GOAL OF COMPARATIVE EFFECTIVENESS RESEARCH (CER) is to provide patients, their advocates and caregivers, health care professionals, federal officials, policy makers, and payers with evidence-based information to make informed health care decisions. Previously, CER studies were designed by researchers and had relatively little input from patients. Patient engagement has rapidly gained accept...

In recent decades, cancer screening programmes (screening that is publicly organised and includes invitation procedures for eligible people of the average risk population in the screening area) have been established in many countries. While cancer screening in the context of clinical trials is innovative and investigative, cancer screening programmes themselves are largely static and not design...

the rational use of insurance finance, insurance benefits decision based on evidence, or clinical decision based on direct evidence, is not different. Therefore, demand for these research activities will increase in the future in Korea. Recently, the National Evidencebased Healthcare Collaborating Agency has launched a research project about CER and the Korean Association of Medical Science has...

The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters.

127 Key message Knowing and managing the cross cultural and multidisciplinary benefits and limitations of comparative effectiveness research (CER) will be the key component in building a strong foundation for the proof of concept in precision medicine.Unprecedented funding for CER is now available but this often favors national applicants even though the research is completed in other nations. ...