Patients can expect significant savings and better outcomes from their prescription medications when health care professionals use comparative effectiveness research, according to researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed by President Obama includes more than $1 billion over the next two years for comparative effectiveness research, a practice that evaluates different options for treating a medical condition among a certain group of patients.
"Despite having the highest per capita health care expenditures in the world, the United States does not always perform well on measures of health compared with other countries," said Glen Schumock, associate professor and director of the UIC Center for Pharmacoeconomic Research.
"With prescription drugs accounting for more than 10 percent -- $227.5 billion -- of the total amount Americans spent on health care in 2007, we need to know more about how drugs compare to one another in terms of effectiveness, safety, and value for money."
The analysis is published in the online version of American Journal of Health-Systems Pharmacy and is co-authored by A. Simon Pickard, UIC associate professor of pharmacy practice.
Comparative effectiveness is a relatively new concept, and it contains two important components, Schumock said. It provides information to help clinicians choose among alternative treatments, and it examines outcomes in actual practice.
Randomized control trials have long been the most widely accepted method to study the efficacy of innovative medical care interventions, and they are required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market a new drug, Schumock said. However, such trials have drawbacks.
A traditional randomized control trial does not show how the drug works, Schumock said, "and it usually compares a new drug with a placebo or an inferior treatment option rather than the drug or drugs that might be legitimate therapeutic alternatives."
The patient populations are also narrowly selected, and are usually healthier than the patients who will eventually use the drug, he said.