Soundbites: Practice and Policy
Selected initiatives, publications and resources that reside at the nexus of research, policy and practice are featured below.
EPIC
EPIC, a multi-year initiative that launched with primary data collection in 6 countries, works to improve the availability and quality of immunization cost and financing information for low-income countries.
Disease Control Priorities
Disease Control Priorities (DCP3) provides economic evaluation of policy choices affecting the access, uptake, and quality of interventions and delivery platforms for low-and middle-income countries.
PROSPR
PROSPR, an NCI-funded consortium, evaluates the screening process for breast, colorectal and cervical cancers across 7 diverse health care institutions throughout the United States.
Using data from the EPIC study on infant immunization costs from six countries, this analysis estimated how costs were distributed across budget categories and programmatic activities, and how the cost structure varied by country and site characteristics. Understanding these differences could inform strategies to improve local efficiency.
Although cost is not mentioned explicitly in the comparative effectiveness legislation, the American College of Physicians and others have called for cost-effectiveness analysis — assessment of the added improvement in health relative to cost — to be on the comparative effectiveness research agenda. This has come under harsh criticism from some. Read the article.
Model-based decision analysis informs the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) revision of cervical cancer screening guidelines, integrating new evidence on standalone human papillomavirus (HPV) testing, recently approved by the FDA for women ages 25 years and older. Learn about the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
