Editor’s highlights from the Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research – October 2022
In this monthly column, I share some of my highlights from the latest issues of the Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research, partner journal of The Evidence Base.
October is a double-issue month for the Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research and I’m pleased to bring you a summary of some of the highlights from across both issues. You can view issue 14 and issue 15 in full via the links, and I hope you find the content engaging and useful.
The next generation of rare disease drug policy: ensuring both innovation and affordability
In their White Paper, Pearson et al. (Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, MA, USA) examine potential reforms to current policies and practices related to orphan drug development, pricing and coverage via a literature review and expert interviews. From this they developed a set of potential policy reforms to form the basis of a formal discussion during a 2-day policy summit with representatives from payers, life science companies and patient groups, whose feedback informed the final report.
Costs and outcomes of mobile cardiac outpatient telemetry monitoring post-transcatheter aortic valve replacement
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is a percutaneous procedure for the treatment of severe, symptomatic aortic stenosis. Following TAVR, in-hospital cardiac telemetry monitoring is critical to detect any problems and to allow for safe patient discharge. This monitoring focuses primarily on potential atrioventricular (AV) block, which necessitates permanent pacemaker implantation; however, the risk for this developing extends beyond discharge, making ambulatory cardiac monitoring a useful tool for physicians. New research from Mohr et al. (Philips, CA, USA), conducts a claims analysis to evaluate the incidence of pacemaker implant post-discharge, length of stay, hospital costs and Medicare payments associated with the use of mobile cardiac telemetry, such as MCOT (BioTelemetry, Inc., a Philips company, PA, USA), for heart monitoring after TAVR compared with no MCOT monitoring after TAVR in Medicare patients.
Expanding the learning health system model to be health literate
Low health literacy is a significant burden in the USA, with nearly nine out of ten adults struggling to understand and use personal and public health information. Healthcare organizations play an essential role in improving health literacy, and in their Commentary, Rosen et al. (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, MD, USA) highlight three needs to realize the vision of applying the learning health system model to the principles of building a health-literate healthcare organization.
Promoting community stakeholder engagement in research on treatment for pregnant women with opioid use disorder
Community stakeholder engagement in research (CSER) is increasingly being recognized as a valuable tool to improve the outcomes of research. In their Short Communication, Goodman et al. (Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Health, NH, USA) describe CSER strategies used across the research continuum, including proposal development, study planning and the first years of a comparative effectiveness study of care for pregnant women with opioid use disorder.
I hope you enjoy these articles, along with the rest of the content of the October issues. The journal welcomes presubmission enquiries, so should you be interested in submitting your work, please do get in touch.