Niaspan And How Comparative Effectiveness Research Was Done Well
Posted Jun 03 2011 8:48pm
Comparative effectiveness research — investigations that determine which treatments are best — has attracted attention in the health care debate. Critics charge that these studies are designed to restrict choice. The Center for Medicine in the Public Interest released a report that suggested that they would stifle innovation. Often they are framed as studies to support efforts to keep useful but expensive therapies from patients.
But what if these studies, done well, revealed that some medications were better than others? What if they overturned conventional wisdom about understudied drugs, demonstrating that many patients were receiving ineffective treatments? What if they showed that some patient were actually being harmed? What if more knowledge about the benefit and risk of treatments in medicine, compared with their alternatives, is just what patients need?
Recently, we had an example of comparative effectiveness research done well. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has produced a gem of a study with critical implications for patient decisions and lessons for future research. The study, called AIM-HIGH, was designed to evaluate whether adding Niaspan, a proprietary formulation of extended release niacin sold by Abbott Laboratories (Abbott Park, IL), to statin treatment in patients with heart and vascular disease would reduce their risk.
Comparative effectiveness research — investigations that determine which treatments are best — has attracted attention in the health care debate. Critics charge that these studies are designed to restrict choice. The Center for Medicine in the Public Interest released a report that suggested that they would stifle innovation. Often they are framed as studies to support efforts to keep useful but expensive therapies from patients.
But what if these studies, done well, revealed that some medications were better than others? What if they overturned conventional wisdom about understudied drugs, demonstrating that many patients were receiving ineffective treatments? What if they showed that some patient were actually being harmed? What if more knowledge about the benefit and risk of treatments in medicine, compared with their alternatives, is just what patients need?
Recently, we had an example of comparative effectiveness research done well. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has produced a gem of a study with critical implications for patient decisions and lessons for future research. The study, called AIM-HIGH, was designed to evaluate whether adding Niaspan, a proprietary formulation of extended release niacin sold by Abbott Laboratories (Abbott Park, IL), to statin treatment in patients with heart and vascular disease would reduce their risk.