Findings from University of Washington Provides New Data about Managed Care (Online Tools To Synthesize Real-world Evidence of Comparative Effectiveness Research To Enhance Formulary Decision Making)

2021 FEB 18 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators publish new report on Managed Care. According to news reporting out of Seattle, Washington, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “Results of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) provide valuable comparisons of 2 or more interventions to inform health care decision making; however, many more comparisons are required than available time and resources to conduct them. Moreover, RCTs have limited generatizabitity.”

Financial support for this research came from Health Tech Fund.

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the University of Washington, “Comparative effectiveness research (CER) using real-world evidence (RWE) can increase generalizability and is important for decision making, but use of nonrandomized designs makes their evaluation challenging. Several toots are available to assist. In this study, we comparatively characterize S tools used to evaluate RWE studies in the context of making health care adoption decision making: (1) Good Research for Comparative Effectiveness (GRACE) Checklist, (2) IMI GetReal RWE Navigator (Navigator), (3) Center for Medical Technology Policy (CMTP) RWE Decoder, (4) CER Collaborative tool, and (5) Real World Evidence Assessments and Needs Guidance (REAdi) toot. We describe each and then compare their features along 8 domains: (1) objective/user/context, (2) development/scope, (3) platform/presentation, (4) user design, (5) study-level internal/external validity of evidence, (6) summarizing body of evidence, (7) assisting in decision making, and (8) sharing results/making improvements. Our summary suggests that the GRACE Checklist aids stakeholders in evaluation of the quality and applicability of individual CER studies. Navigator is a collection of educational resources to guide demonstration of effectiveness, a guidance toot to support development of medicines, and a directory of authoritative resources for RWE. The CMTP RWE Decoder aids in the assessment of relevance and rigor of RWE. The CER Collaborative tool aids in the assessment of credibility and relevance. The REAdi toot aids in refinement of the research question, study retrieval, quality assessment, grading the body of evidence, and prompts with questions to facilitate coverage decisions. All tools specify a framework, were designed with stakeholder input, assess internal validity, are available online, and are easy to use. They vary in their complexity and comprehensiveness. The RWE Decoder, CER Collaborative tool, and REAdi tool synthesize evidence and were specifically designed to aid formulary decision making.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “This study adds clarity on what the tools provide so that the user can determine which best fits a given purpose.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Online Tools To Synthesize Real-world Evidence of Comparative Effectiveness Research To Enhance Formulary Decision Making. Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy, 2021;27(1):95-104. Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy can be contacted at: Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy, 100 N Pitt St, 400, Alexandria, VA 22314-3134, USA.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Beth Devine, University of Washington, School of Pharmacy, Comparat Hlth Outcomes Policy & Econ Choice Inst, Seattle, WA 98195, United States. Additional authors for this research include Shuxian Chen, Sophia Yun, Brennan Beal, Jamie T. Ta, Aasthaa Bansal, Joshua J. Carlson, David L. Veenstra, Anirban Basu and Jennifer Graff.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.18553/jmcp.2021.27.1.095. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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