Comparative Effectiveness Research Improves Outcomes, Kaiser Finds

The national Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) can look to Kaiser Permanente to see how comparative effectiveness research can enhance healthcare.

Kaiser has researched the comparative effectiveness of different treatments and therapies for decades, the San Jose Mercury News reports, basing treatment options in part on which produce better outcomes.

While critics have worried comparative effectiveness research could lead to healthcare rationing, with less-expensive treatments favored over more effective but more expensive options, Kaiser has found cost and effectiveness don't always go together, the article notes.