IOM Report Targets Dialysis for Comparative Effectiveness07/01/2009
WASHINGTON—Dialysis was among 100 health topics listed in a new Institute of Medicine report that the agency feels should be part of a national research effort to compare which healthcare treatments work best for patients.
Specifically to dialysis, the report calls for researchers to, “Compare the effectiveness (including survival, hospitalization, quality of life, and costs) of renal replacement therapies (e.g., daily home hemodialysis, intermittent home hemodialysis, conventional in-center dialysis, continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis, renal transplantation) for patients of different ages, races, and ethnicities.”
Click HERE to read the full list of 100 health topics.
Comparative effectiveness research weighs the benefits and harms of various ways to prevent, diagnose, treat, or monitor clinical conditions to determine which work best for particular types of patients and in different settings and circumstances, according to the IOM. Study results can help consumers, clinicians, policymakers, and purchasers make more informed decisions, ultimately improving care for individuals and groups.
Congress put aside $1.1 billion for the effort with money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and it requested that the IOM committee develop the list of priority topics.
The committee received 1,268 topic suggestions, which it narrowed to 100 based on a set of criteria that included its charge to develop a balanced portfolio. The list reflects a range of clinical categories, populations to be studied, categories of interventions, and research methodologies.
The committee's report provides independent guidance—informed by extensive public input—to Congress and the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on how to spend $400 million on research to compare health services and approaches to care, according to the IOM.
The IOM report also spells out actions and resources needed to ensure that the comparative effectiveness research initiative will be a sustained effort with a continuous process for updating priorities as needed and that the results are put into clinical practice.
"Healthcare decisions too often area matter of guesswork because we lack good evidence to inform them," said committee co-chair Harold C. Sox, editor, Annals of Internal Medicine, AmericanCollege of Physicians of Internal Medicine, Philadelphia. "For example, we spend a great deal on diagnostic tests for coronary heart disease in this country, but we lack sufficient evidence to determine which test is best."
Click HERE to read and purchase the full IOM report.
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