TY - JOUR
T1 - Methods for the drug effectiveness review project
AU - McDonagh, Marian S.
AU - Jonas, Daniel E.
AU - Gartlehner, Gerald
AU - Little, Alison
AU - Peterson, Kim
AU - Carson, Susan
AU - Gibson, Mark
AU - Helfand, Mark
N1 - Funding Information:
The Drug Effectiveness Review Project has been funded by 11 to 17 nonprofit organizations over its 9 year history. These are primarily state Medicaid agencies, with the only exception being the Canadian Agency for Drugs Technology and Health (CADTH). The majority of funds provided go towards creation of evidence reports, with a small proportion set aside for administration, governance, and methods development. Representatives from each organization participate in biannual governance meetings, where the methods described in this manuscript were presented, discussed, and agreed upon. The DERP participants had no role in the decision to submit this manuscript for publication and did not participate in writing or approving this manuscript. We thank Ed Reid, MS, Arkady Mak, MD, PhD and Leah Williams BS for editing and Allison Low, BA for formatting the manuscript. We thank Tim Carey, MD, MPH for his thoughtful comments on early drafts.
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - The Drug Effectiveness Review Project was initiated in 2003 in response to dramatic increases in the cost of pharmaceuticals, which lessened the purchasing power of state Medicaid budgets. A collaborative group of state Medicaid agencies and other organizations formed to commission high-quality comparative effectiveness reviews to inform evidence-based decisions about drugs that would be available to Medicaid recipients. The Project is coordinated by the Center for Evidence-based Policy (CEbP) at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), and the systematic reviews are undertaken by the Evidence-based Practice Centers (EPCs) at OHSU and at the University of North Carolina. The reviews adhere to high standards for comparative effectiveness reviews. Because the investigators have direct, regular communication with policy-makers, the reports have direct impact on policy and decision-making, unlike many systematic reviews. The Project was an innovator of methods to involve stakeholders and continues to develop its methods in conducting reviews that are highly relevant to policy-makers. The methods used for selecting topics, developing key questions, searching, determining eligibility of studies, assessing study quality, conducting qualitative and quantitative syntheses, rating the strength of evidence, and summarizing findings are described. In addition, our on-going interactions with the policy-makers that use the reports are described.
AB - The Drug Effectiveness Review Project was initiated in 2003 in response to dramatic increases in the cost of pharmaceuticals, which lessened the purchasing power of state Medicaid budgets. A collaborative group of state Medicaid agencies and other organizations formed to commission high-quality comparative effectiveness reviews to inform evidence-based decisions about drugs that would be available to Medicaid recipients. The Project is coordinated by the Center for Evidence-based Policy (CEbP) at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), and the systematic reviews are undertaken by the Evidence-based Practice Centers (EPCs) at OHSU and at the University of North Carolina. The reviews adhere to high standards for comparative effectiveness reviews. Because the investigators have direct, regular communication with policy-makers, the reports have direct impact on policy and decision-making, unlike many systematic reviews. The Project was an innovator of methods to involve stakeholders and continues to develop its methods in conducting reviews that are highly relevant to policy-makers. The methods used for selecting topics, developing key questions, searching, determining eligibility of studies, assessing study quality, conducting qualitative and quantitative syntheses, rating the strength of evidence, and summarizing findings are described. In addition, our on-going interactions with the policy-makers that use the reports are described.
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U2 - 10.1186/1471-2288-12-140
DO - 10.1186/1471-2288-12-140
M3 - Review article
C2 - 22970848
AN - SCOPUS:84866005491
SN - 1471-2288
VL - 12
JO - BMC Medical Research Methodology
JF - BMC Medical Research Methodology
M1 - 140
ER -