Comments on: $1.1 billion for Comparing Drugs: A good idea? http://blog.corporateresearchgroup.com/2009/04/20/11-billion-for-comparing-drugs-a-good-idea/ Inside view on the business of healthcare Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:21:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Boas Gonen, M.D. http://blog.corporateresearchgroup.com/2009/04/20/11-billion-for-comparing-drugs-a-good-idea/#comment-185 Sat, 25 Apr 2009 14:08:24 +0000 http://blog.corporateresearchgroup.com/?p=1068#comment-185 I agree wholeheartedly with the comment. My focus was on drugs, because comparative studies would be a relatively new thing. If the money is going to be spent on other types of treatments (mostly surgical) – this would be very useful endeavor indeed, though, of course, such types of studies have been done for a long time. It will also be useful to continue to evaluate the utility of expensive diagnostic tests, often used as part of practicing defensive medicine.

]]> By: Health care -- how do we move forward http://blog.corporateresearchgroup.com/2009/04/20/11-billion-for-comparing-drugs-a-good-idea/#comment-181 Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:40:20 +0000 http://blog.corporateresearchgroup.com/?p=1068#comment-181 If comparative effectiveness were only about drugs and drug companies didn’t practice the ‘art’ of patent extending with minor changes in formulation, then I would agree with you.

However…
Claritin/Claritin-D to name one in the drug realm.

Back surgeries have a long history. The example of what happened when Virginia Mason in Seattle changed the process and started sending people to physical therapy first and they reduced surgeries by 50%.

Knee replacement surgeries that are ineffective.

The list goes on, the waste in terms of overuse is legion. We need to begin to hold the system accountable for providing procedures and services that have incrementally better outcomes rather than simply the newest thing where demand is created by marketing and physician suggestion.

http://ilovebenefits.wordpress.com

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