June 30, 2009

Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research Report to the President & to Congress

The Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research held listening sessions in early 2009 to develop recommendations to conduct comparative effectiveness research (CER) as mandated by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. CER compares 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 and clinicians. The Council recommended that the federal Department of Health and Human Services use a database that includes all payers and all claims so that data sources could include the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services databases, private payers, states, and others.