Beyond Mammograms: Perspectives on
Comparative Effectiveness Research
(webcast)
A Public Luncheon Briefing

Tuesday, December 15, 2009
12:00-1:30 p.m.
2168 Rayburn House Office Building (the Gold Room)

Questions about breast and cervical cancer screenings are the latest issues to arise in relation to comparative effectiveness research (CER)—research that compares the benefits and harms of different means of preventing, diagnosing, and treating particular clinical conditions in particular patients. Fewer than half of medical interventions used today are supported by scientific evidence, according to a recent Institute of Medicine report. CER received $1.1 billion in stimulus money and is part of the debate over this year’s health care reform bills. Will CER improve the quality of the health care system? What can we glean from the experiences of other nations? What can we learn from CER, particularly about major diseases like cancer? What are its limitations and ethical concerns? How can—or should—CER inform the decisions of medical consumers and their physicians?

Speakers include:

• Steven Pearson, MD, MSc, FRCP, President, Institute for Clinical and Economic Review; Senior Fellow at America’s Health Insurance Plans; and Visiting Scientist, Department of Bioethics, National Institutes of Health (slides)
• Nancy Berlinger, PhD, MDiv, Deputy Director and Research Scholar, The Hastings Center
• Richard Payne, MD, Professor of Medicine and Divinity, Duke University, and Esther Colliflower Director of the Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life
• Steve Findlay, MPH, Senior Health Policy Analyst, Consumers Union (slides)

Moderated by Alan Leshner, PhD, CEO of AAAS and former head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at NIH.

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AAAS is a non-profit, non-partisan organization. Since it was founded in 1848, AAAS has been dedicated to the advancement of scientific knowledge for the good of society as a whole. www.aaas.org/spp/cstc

The Hastings Center is a non-partisan, multi-disciplinary research institution dedicated to bioethics and the public interest since 1969. www.thehastingscenter.org