title: Comparative effectiveness research in urology.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Comparative effectiveness research (CER) has come to remain at the forefront of political and scientific debates of health care. The aim of this article is to describe the attributes of CER and implications to the field of urology.
  
  
  METHODS
  The authors reviewed the published urology literature and recent CER publications including the Institute of Medicine reports.
  
  
  RESULTS
  CER is defined as the evaluation of the relative efficacy of diagnostic tests, treatments, and health care services against the current standards of care, with the goal of reducing health care costs while simultaneously improving quality. Significant government funds were recently devoted to CER efforts. The Institute of Medicine identified 25 of the most urgently needed areas for research of which three pertain to Urology: screening for prostate cancer, comparing effectiveness of treatments for localized prostate cancer, and use of imaging in diagnosing, staging, and monitoring cancer patients. Some of the important required strategies to formulate successful CER include involving health care stakeholders to aid in selecting appropriate topics, utilizing study populations that represent real life practice, and the development of large-scale national databases and registries.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Several topics of urologic care have already been identified in the first quartile of CER priorities, and many others need to be added. Following the proposed research, designs for CER should be done while abiding by robust methodology, maintaining transparency, and effectively translating research into clinical practice.
authors.affiliation: Knowledge and Encounter Research Unit, Mayo Clinic, 200 First Street SW, Rochester, MN 55905, USA.
authors.forename: Amy T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jeffrey K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Victor M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Montori
authors.forename: Mohammad Hassan
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Murad
mesh_terms: D057186:Comparative Effectiveness Research / Q000639:trends*; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000191:economics / Q000628:therapy; D014572:Urology / Q000639:trends*