Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) Resources

Comparative effectiveness research is the conduct and synthesis of research comparing the benefits and harms of different interventions and strategies to prevent, diagnose, treat and monitor health conditions in "real world" settings. The purpose of this research is to improve health outcomes by developing and disseminating evidence-based information to patients, clinicians, and other decision-makers, responding to their expressed needs, about which interventions are most effective for which patients under specific circumstances. To provide this information, comparative effectiveness research must assess a comprehensive array of health-related outcomes for diverse patient populations and sub-groups. Defined interventions compared may include medications, procedures, medical and assistive devices and technologies, diagnostic testing, behavioral change, and delivery system strategies. This research necessitates the development, expansion, and use of a variety of data sources and methods to assess comparative effectiveness and actively disseminate the results. (from Report to the President and the Congress on Comparative Effectiveness Research, 2009)

Most definitions of CER involve not only comparing two or more active interventions, but also

• conducting these assessments in settings with real-world significance
• evaluating for heterogeneity of intervention effects across different subgroups of patients
• focusing on perspectives of different stakeholders, with a particular emphasis on patient-centered outcomes.

Training and References

• Online courses on CER methods are offered by:
  • Tufts CTSI
  • UC Davis CTSA
  • Ohio State University College of Public Health and CCTS
  • University of Washington Institute of Translational Health Sciences
• Online courses and materials about patient and stakeholder engagement are available through
  • Health Affairs' videos and related content on patient engagement
• AHRQ's Effective Health Care Program offers web-based CME programs on the comparative effectiveness of treatment strategies for different clinical conditions.
• The Center for Medical Technology and Policy offers a variety of white papers and presentations on various aspects of CER.
• Pragmatic clinical trials
  • A brief primer and resources on pragmatic clinical trials from the Center for Medical Technology Policy

Resource Guides and Best Practices

• PCORI Methodology Standards and Report (pdf)
• GRACE principles (best practices for the design, conduct, analysis, and reporting of observational CER studies).
• Methods guides for conducting comparative effectiveness assessments and reviews (AHRQ)
• A user's guide to registries to improve patient outcomes (AHRQ)
• Finding What Works in Health Care: Standards for Systematic Reviews (Institute of Medicine)

Conducting Pubmed Searches for CER

• The National Library of Medicine has created search tools and other resources to support literature searches for CER.
  • Search tools: PubMed
  • Other resources

Other Resources

Compendia of resources and programs:

• Effective Health Care Program (AHRQ's umbrella program for CER)
• CER resources from the National Cancer Institute
• CER resources from the National Library of Medicine
• CER resources from Academy Health
• CER resources from the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR)
• CER resources from the ECRI Institute

Collaborations, research centers, and research networks:

• Electronic Data Methods (EDM) Forum for Comparative Effectiveness Research: A forum to facilitate learning and collaboration across a set of CER projects designed to build infrastructure and methods for collecting and analyzing prospective electronic clinical data
  • Academy Health
  • EDM-Forum
• Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics (CERTs)
• DARTNet
• Centers for Primary Care Practice-Based Research and Learning

Data sources:

• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Grants On-Line Database
• Society of General Internal Medicine Research Dataset Compendium: Descriptions of and links to high-value publicly available research datasets
• Roadmap K12 Data Resource Center: Descriptions of and links to publicly available research datasets