Stimulus Bill Creates Comparative Effectiveness Research Team
The recently passed economic stimulus bill will create a 15 person research council to compare the efficacy of different treatments for the same illness. According to an article in the New York Times published last week, the program "responds to growing concerns that doctors have little or no solid evidence of the value of many treatments." The inclusion of comparative effectiveness research in the stimulus bill should, according to supporters, curb the costs of health care in the long-run, as it will discourage patients and providers from using less effective, but very costly treatments. Reaction from major players in the life sciences community will surely be mixed. If the council is successful, its findings may result in a windfall for some companies, but may have the opposite effect for those companies whose treatments are dubbed "less effective."
