Perioperative Comparative Effectiveness Research

Perioperative comparative effectiveness research: an opportunity calling.

An Opportunity Calling IN this issue of ANESTHESIOLOGY, Memtsoudis et al. offer compelling evidence that the practice of bilateral total knee arthroplasty—staged within one hospitalization or simultaneous within one anesthetic episode—confers increased risk of in-hospital mortality and morbidity compared with unilateral procedures. One may question why data regarding surgical staging are presen...

CEPAC and comparative effectiveness research.

Methods in comparative effectiveness research.

Comparative effectiveness research (CER) seeks to assist consumers, clinicians, purchasers, and policy makers to make informed decisions to improve health care at both the individual and population levels. CER includes evidence generation and evidence synthesis. Randomized controlled trials are central to CER because of the lack of selection bias, with the recent development of adaptive and pra...

Commentary: Will academia embrace comparative effectiveness research?

In recent medical history, a number of therapies that were widely adopted based on observational data or pathophysiological constructs turned out to be useless or even harmful when tested in randomized comparative effectiveness trials. These therapies not only harmed patients but also did a disservice to the practical education of medical students, residents, and fellows. These trainees effecti...

The methods of comparative effectiveness research.

This review describes methods used in comparative effectiveness research (CER). The aim of CER is to improve decisions that affect medical care at the levels of both policy and the individual. The key elements of CER are (a) head-to-head comparisons of active treatments, (b) study populations typical of day-to-day clinical practice, and (c) a focus on evidence to inform care tailored to the cha...