A committee of the Institute of Medicine issued a report on comparative effectiveness research for medical treatments which lists 100 priority topics for review. The IOM’s list, released Tuesday, includes recommendations to compare treatment strategies in the US for atrial fibrillation, inflammatory diseases, prostate cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, among other health conditions and health-related topics.

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The report is intended to provide guidance for spending a portion of the $1.1 billion in economic-stimulus funds provided by the US government for such research. Commenting on the matter, Kathleen Buto, vice president for health policy at Johnson & Johnson, stated that “comparative effectiveness research should inform medical decisions and not replace medical judgement or be used to limit treatment choices.” She added that “the ultimate decision about which treatment or intervention is best for a particular individual should remain between a doctor and patient based on real-world data and analyses.”

Meanwhile, panel co-chairman Harold Sox, who is also the editor of the Annals of Internal Medicine, said “healthcare decisions too often are a matter of guesswork, because we lack good evidence to inform them.” He also remarked that medical-product manufacturers had a “muted” response to the panel’s efforts to prioritise the funding, noting that of the approximately 2000 public comments and recommendations the panel received, 28 came from makers of drugs, biologic products or medical devices.

Drugmakers have recently bolstered lobbying efforts aimed at deterring the US government from using comparative drug studies as a possible means of reducing healthcare costs.

Source: FirstWord

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