PMC’s Suggestions to PCORI’s Methodology Committee

The September 14, 2012 (11:59 PM ET) deadline for submitting public comment on the Draft Methodology Report recently published by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute’s (PCORI) Methodology Committee quickly approaches.

We encourage you all to submit comment as the revised version will be considered for adoption by the PCORI Board of Governors at its November 2012 public meeting in Boston, Mass.

PCORI was designed to do something new and very different – to define how practical, feasible, and useful patient-centered research is to be conducted and the legislation authorizing it directed the methodology committee to address the role of molecular and genetic variation in comparative effectiveness research. With this bold goal outlined, the Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC) issued its comments to Dr. Joe Selby and Dr. Sherine Gabriel, the Executive Director and Chair of PCORI on September 13, 2012. You can find a copy of that letter here.

Citing our prior work with the Lewin Group, PMC stressed the importance of PCORI moving beyond conventional CER analysis, noting that “comparative effectiveness research (CER) studies to date have rarely accommodated the collection and reporting of genomic, behavioral, environmental, and other individual patient differences.”

To ensure that the tenets of personalized medicine outlined in the authorizing legislation are upheld, PMC reiterated our call for creation of a PCORI Advisory Panel on Personalized Medicine and Innovation and for establishment of standards for updating studies and analyses based on changes in the science or evidence base. We also are making recommendations to address:

1. Heterogeneity of Treatment Effectiveness Standards: Recommend that either a separate section on standards for biomarkers and genetic variables be added to the report or an additional section on heterogeneity of treatment effectiveness be developed to guide the use of biomarker data in patient-centered outcomes research.
2. Diagnostic Test Study Standards: Develop a new paradigm for collecting and analyzing evidence by recommending variations in new clinical trial design, using patient registries to identify respondents, analyzing archived biospecimens, and implementing retrospective analysis of laboratory data.
3. Stakeholder Engagement: Release a table outlining the categories of specific comments received in all future comment submission periods with an explanation of how PCORI addressed the comments as a way to re-emphasize the importance of stakeholder engagement.

Tags: Amy Miller, Comment Period, Legislature, PCORI, personalized medicine, PMC, Stakeholder Engagement