1. PIPC Submits Letter to ICER on Value Assessment Process, click here to view the letter.
2. Health Affairs Blog: Budget Criteria And Drug Value Assessments: A Case Of Apples And Oranges?, click here to view the article.
3. Health Affairs: Incorporating Patient-Reported Outcomes Into Health Care To Engage Patients And Enhance Care, click here to view the article (subscription only).
4. The Health Care Blog: Statin Wars Less-is-More versus Unlimited Medicine, click here to view the blog post.
5. GAO Makes Appointments to PCORI Governing Board, click here to view the press release.
6. PCORI Research in Action: Hepatitis Research, click here to view the article.
7. Medical Journal Articles, see details below.
8. Upcoming Events and Webinars, see details below.
9. AHRQ Effective Program Updates, see details below.
1. PIPC Submits Letter to ICER on Value Assessment Process
The Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC) and over 40 organizations representing patients, people with disabilities and providers submitted a letter to the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) in response to their request for input on their value assessment process. In the letter, the organizations stated, “Simply put, if we aren’t paying for care that patients’ value, we aren’t really paying for value-based care.”
PIPC Chairman Tony Coelho stated, “ It is my hope that ICER will give sincere and careful consideration to the input of all organizations representing patients and people with disabilities, many of which have direct experiences with ICER’s process and whose input would be very constructive. It is my hope that our concerns will not be dismissed as myths, but instead be given the consideration they deserve.”
Organizations representing patients and people with disabilities have expressed significant concerns about ICER’s valuation process and are pleased that ICER is accepting input. Click here to view the letter. For additional information, the letter to ICER may be found here and a copy of PIPC’s roundtable on value assessment may be found here.
2. Health Affairs Blog: Budget Criteria And Drug Value Assessments: A Case Of Apples And Oranges?
In a recent article in Health Affairs Blog, Professors Darius Lakdawalla and Peter J. Neumann comment on the “controversial” role of budgetary criteria in determining value and in governing access to health care technologies. “A notable example is the methodology used by the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), which holds that conventional approaches using cost-effectiveness analysis to measure value are insufficient. According to this view, even high-value technologies that exceed a certain spending threshold should be subjected to additional scrutiny before being granted market access… ICER's budgetary criteria, which use a five-year time horizon, also encourage the myopic view that health care is an expense, like buying a bottle of wine or seeing a movie. Yet, many economists and policymakers have long recognized that high-value health care is instead an investment, involving short-term costs that produce even larger long-term benefits. Novel therapies for hepatitis-C represent a case in point. Even the most expensive treatment scenarios—treating all patients with diagnosed hepatitis-C—pay off in the long run.” Click here to view the article.
3. Health Affairs: Incorporating Patient-Reported Outcomes Into Health Care To Engage Patients And Enhance Care
As detailed in a recent Health Affairs article, “The provision of patient-centered care requires a health care environment that fosters engagement between patients and their health care team. One way to encourage patient-centered care is to incorporate patient-reported outcomes into clinical settings. Collecting these outcomes in routine care ensures that important information only the patient can provide is captured. This provides insights into patients’ experiences of symptoms, quality of life, and functioning; values and preferences; and goals for health care. Previously embraced in the research realm, patient-reported outcomes have started to play a role in successful shared decision making, which can enhance the safe and effective delivery of health care. We examine the opportunities for using patient-reported outcomes to enhance care delivery and outcomes as health care information needs and technology platforms change. We highlight emerging practices in which patient-reported outcomes provide value to patients and clinicians and improve care delivery. Finally, we examine present and future challenges to maximizing the use of patient-reported outcomes in the clinic.” Click here to view the article (subscription only).
4. The Health Care Blog: Statin Wars Less-is-More versus Unlimited Medicine
In an article published in The Health Care Blog, Dr. Sarah Jha comments, “The less-is-more movement believes medicine is doing too much. It believes medicine is overtesting, overtreating, overdiagnosing, over stepping, and over intruding in the lives of private citizens...EBM quantifies trade-offs. EBM doesn't abolish trade-offs. The less-is-more movement doesn't acknowledge trade-offs. It fails to acknowledge that therapeutic incontinence saves a few, very few to be precise, but few nonetheless.” Click here to view the blog post.
5. GAO Makes Appointments to PCORI Governing Board
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has announced the appointment of two new members to the Governing Board of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI): Russell Howerton, MD, Chief Medical Officer and Vice President of Clinical Operations at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, and Kathleen Troeger, MPH, Director of Outcomes Research at Hologic, Inc. in Massachusetts. In addition, Dodaro named Grayson Norquist, MD, to a second three-year term as chair and reappointed four members.” Click here to view the press release.
6. PCORI Research in Action: Hepatitis Research
A recent update from PCORI notes that “Americans of Asian ancestry are at increased risk of hepatitis B and, in some cases, hepatitis C. These diseases can cause liver problems and cancer. But many Asian Americans have not been screened for these illnesses. PCORI-funded researchers are testing whether an interactive app overcomes language and cultural barriers to encourage more people to get screened.” Click here to view the article.
7. Medical Journal Articles
Using Bayesian Adaptive Trial Designs for Comparative Effectiveness Research: A Virtual Trial Execution, click here to view.
Non-TNF-Targeted Biologic vs a Second Anti-TNF Drug to Treat Rheumatoid Arthritis in Patients With Insufficient Response to a First Anti-TNF Drug: A Randomized Clinical Trial, click here to view.
Pragmatic Trials: Practical Answers to "Real World" Questions, click here to view.
GetReal: From Efficacy in Clinical Trials to Relative Effectiveness in the Real World, click here to view.
Qualitative Methods in Patient-Centered Outcomes Research, click here to view.
8. Upcoming Events and Webinars
PCORI Board of Governors Meeting
September 27, 2016, 12:00PM - 1:30PM EDT
Click here for details.
Assessing Value: Promise & Pitfalls
September 29, 2016
Click here for details.
LAN Webinar: Building a Robust Data Infrastructure that Supports APMs
October 5, 2016, 2:00PM ET
Click here for details.
Cycle 3 2016 Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis Applicant Town Hall
October 11, 2016, 11:00AM - 12:30PM ET
Click here for details.
PCORI: Advisory Panel on Addressing Disparities Fall 2016 Meeting
October 24, 2016, 9:00AM - 5:00PM ET
Click here for details.
Measuring Our Impact on Science, Delivery of Care, and Patient Outcomes
October 27 - 28, 2016
Click here for details.
Recommendations of the Second Panel on Cost-Effectiveness in Health and Medicine
December 7, 2016, 9:00AM - 4:30PM
Click here for details.
9. AHRQ Effective Program Updates
Management of Uterine Fibroids, click here to view.
Newer Medications for Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms Attributed to Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia -- Disposition of Comments, click here to view.
Resident Safety Practices in Nursing Home Settings -- Disposition of Comments, click here to view.
Total Worker Health® (TWH) -- Disposition of Comments, click here to view.
Disparities Within Serious Mental Illness -- Disposition of Comments Report, click here to view.
Fractional Exhaled Nitric Oxide Clinical Utility in Asthma Management -- Research Protocol, click here to view.
Anxiety in Children -- Research Protocol, click here to view.
The Role of Immunotherapy and the Management of Asthma: Systematic Review -- Research Protocol, click here to view.
Treatment of Primary and Secondary Osteoarthritis of the Knee: An Update Review, click here to view.
Systematic Review of Intermittent Inhaled Corticosteroids and of Long-acting Muscarinic Antagonists for Asthma -- Research Protocol, click here to view.