A Framework for Assessing the Value of Diagnostic Imaging in the Era of Comparative Effectiveness Research

Radiology: Volume 261: Number 3-December 2011

G.Scott Gazelle, MD, MPH, PhD Larry Kessler, MD David W. Lee, PhD Thomas McGinn, MD, MPH Joseph Menzin, PhD Peter J. Neumann, ScD Derek van Amerongen, MD, MS Leigh Ann White, PhD

In June 2009, the Federal Coordinating Council for Com­parative Effectiveness Research submitted a report to the President and Congress in which the Council described the purpose of comparative effectiveness research (CER) as developing evidence-based information for interventions and determining under what circumstances an interven­tion is effective (1). With the enactment of the Patient Pro­tection and Affordable Care Act, a Patient-centered Out­comes Research Institute (PCORI) was established to assist decision makers in making evidence-based health decisions through synthesis and dissemination of clinical CER of health interventions (2). Its founding has underscored a heightened need for health policy makers to consider the impact of health care technologies on final outcomes of interest—for example, functional status, quality of life, dis­ability, major clinical events, and mortality (3-5).