Recovery Act Limited Competition: Methodology Development in Comparative Effectiveness Research (RC4)

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Purpose. This NIH Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), supported by funds provided to the NIH and AHRQ under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ('Recovery Act" or "ARRA"), Public Law 111-5, invites applications to enhance, develop, or evaluate methodologies to improve the efficiency, validity, and credibility of comparative effectiveness research (CER) studies.CER encompasses a wide array of methodologies, including technology assessment, meta-analysis, systematic reviews, observational studies, and experimental trials.Each of these methodologies suffers from substantial weaknesses that limit their ability to rapidly provide information sought by patients, clinicians, and other stakeholders to make robust evidence-based decisions on clinical practice and public policy.Research is needed to develop better methods for measuring or reducing these weaknesses, which include, for example, confounding bias in observational studies and selection bias in randomized trials.For the purposes of this FOA, the definition of comparative effectiveness research will adhere to that adopted by the Federal Coordinating Council given at http://www.hhs.gov/recovery/programs/cer/cerannualrpt.pdfComparative effectiveness research is the conduct and synthesis of research comparing the benefits and harms of different interventions and strategies to prevent, diagnose, treat and monitor health conditions in "real world" settings. The purpose of this research is to improve health outcomes by developing and disseminating evidence-based information to patients, clinicians, and other decision-makers, responding to their expressed needs, about which interventions are most effective for which patients under specific circumstances.

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