Ohio State Launches New CER Program to Fuel Focus on Improved Patient Outcomes
Newswise — Columbus – A new web-based training program launched this week is helping healthcare providers translate studies comparing emerging treatments with established practices into better patient care.
The Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) Online Learning Center, a collaboration among The Ohio State University Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS), College of Public Health and Nationwide Children’s Hospital, aims to teach providers how CER studies that compare new and old data can help them identify best practices on everything from surgical approaches to drug therapies. According to Thomas Wickizer, PhD, director of the Center for Health Outcomes, Policy and Evaluation Studies (HOPES) at Ohio State and one of the key developers of the online center, the program comes at a time when impending changes to the healthcare system may make CER even more relevant and necessary.
“As the reimbursement structure evolves, it will place greater emphasis on outcomes and shift some of the financial risk to providers. When this happens, CER will become even more important, said Wickizer. “Stakeholders from hospitals to healthcare providers, payors to patients may find themselves using CER studies to fill in the information gap that can drive better outcomes and enhance health care value. We’re hopeful the accessibility of the Learning Center will encourage these stakeholders to take a closer look at CER.”
MAKING CER ACCESSIBLECreating The Learning Center involved the input of 12 experts and 11 institutions with a goal of making the material understandable to audiences with a variety of backgrounds and experience levels. The web site includes open access to 16 modules that provide a general introduction to CER and in-depth instruction on specific CER methods. The modules are available in a variety of platforms, including audio presentations from CER experts and printable versions of the slide presentations.
The module content is based on a course taught last year, which included an intensive week long immersion session and 6-week capstone course where trainees put their news skills to use in developing a CER study proposal evaluated by course mentor Brook Martin, Orthopaedic Surgery and Health Services Research, Dartmouth Medical School. Martin, who first became interested in CER while studying controversial procedures to alleviate back pain, said that he enjoys helping trainees see that CER is both practical and creative.
“The training covers the practical basics - the tools of analysis, the limitations of observational data and identifying the available databases. Then there’s the fun part of teaching the trainees how to creatively approach their question in ways that can help them craft a solid piece of research that is informative, simple and doesn’t cost a lot of money.”
Martin noted that the most challenging part of the course for participants may be in upsetting the widely held notion that only large-scale, randomized trials can provide solid information. Most clinicians are trained to view these types of studies as the gold standard and to pay less attention to observational data, something that course participant Udayan Bhatt, an assistant professor of Nephrology at Ohio State College of Medicine, acknowledged.
“The traditional emphasis in medicine has focused on randomized, placebo controlled clinical trials. Although these remain a vital area in clinical research, molding clinical research questions to fit that model is not always possible, “ said Bhatt, who is working on a study comparing the biological outcomes of different blood pressure medication classes . “The course took a lot of the mystery out of conducting CER studies and the broad range of learning experiences was fascinating.”
Another CER training session is scheduled for Summer 2012, and Wickizer is hopeful that the course along with other CER initiatives being spearheaded by academia, government and industry can help solve some of the healthcare issues that face the country today.
“Helping healthcare providers approach research and patient care through a CER lens may promote positive changes needed to create a more sustainable health care system that policy has so far been unable to do,” said Wickizer.
MAKING CER CENTRAL TO THE TRANSLATIONAL MISSIONThe online CER Learning Center is not the first – or the last – CER initiative that the CCTS supports, but part of an overall vision, according to Rebecca Jackson, MD, Director and PI of the CCTS.
“We believe one of the hallmarks of a successful translational science program is that it recognizes that CER can fundamentally change the way we practice and improve medicine today. The more we can integrate it into the mindset of current and future healthcare providers, the sooner patients can start reaping the benefits.” said Jackson.
To that end, the Ohio State College of Medicine is also working with Dr. Wickizer and his team to revise the current medical school curriculum to include CER fundamentals. Charles Lockwood, MD, dean of the College of Medicine feels this will give Ohio State graduates an advantage.
“Making CER part of the curriculum is an incredible opportunity to expose medical students to a different way of approaching research,” said Lockwood. “Paired with our other curriculum evolutions that apply foundational science concepts to patient care, we believe our students will be well-prepared to succeed in an increasingly outcomes-focused environment.”
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About The Ohio State University Center for Clinical and Translational ScienceDedicated to turning the scientific discoveries of today into the life-changing health innovations of tomorrow, The Ohio State University Center for Clinical and Translational Science (OSU CCTS) is a collaboration of experts including scientists and clinicians from seven OSU Health Science Colleges, Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center and Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Funded by a multi-year Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) from the National Institutes of Health, OSU CCTS provides financial, organizational and educational support to biomedical researchers as well as opportunities for community members to participate in credible and valuable research. The CCTS is led by Rebecca Jackson, M.D., Director of the CCTS and associate dean of research at Ohio State. For more information, visit http://ccts.osu.edu.
About the Clinical and Translational Science AwardsLaunched in 2006 by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) program created academic homes for clinical and translational science at research institutions across the country. The CTSA’s primary goals are to speed the time it takes for basic science to turn into useable therapeutics that directly improve human health, and to train the next generation of clinicians and translational researchers.
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