Overview

Australia, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom all have set up agencies to ensure that their investments in health care, including medications, treatments, and new medical technologies, are yielding ‘value for money’ and to assist health care providers in improving their clinical practice. The Commonwealth Fund has just published a new series of issue briefs examining the comparative effectiveness efforts in each country. The issue briefs are: 

• Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care: Germany by Mona Nasser, D.D.S., Peter T. Sawicki, M.D., Ph.D.
• Comparative Effectiveness Review Within the U.K.'s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence by Kalipso Chalkidou, M.D., Ph.D.
• Evidence-Based Decision-Making Within Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme by Ruth Lopert, B.Sc., B.Med., M.Med.Sci.
• National Authority for Health: France by Lise Rochaix, Ph.D., and Bertrand Xerri, M.D.

Also available is a series of videos featuring comparative-effectiveness experts from these four nations: former Harkness fellow Kalipso Chalkidou, M.D., Ph.D., , Director, Policy Consulting, U.K.'s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE); Sir Michael Rawlins, Chairman of  NICE; Professor Emeritus Lloyd Sansom, AO, Chair, the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) ; Laurent Degos, M.D., Ph.D.,  Chair,  the French National Authority for Health (Haute Autorité de Santé, or HAS); and Peter Sawicki, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Germany's Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care.