Glossary Terms
-
Adverse Effect
- Anything that a person might feel is a negative or harmful result of a treatment or test.
-
Adverse Event
- Any negative or unwanted effect from any drug, device, or medical test.
-
Clinical Research
- The branch of medical science devoted to finding information that improves people's health. It includes research studies that examine the safety and effectiveness of medications, medical devices, diagnostic tests, and treatment regimens intended for human use. Usually, more than one person with the same disease is studied.
-
Clinical Trial
- A carefully conducted research study that compares the effects of drugs, treatments, or diagnostic tests.
-
Comparative Effectiveness
- A type of health care research that compares the results of one approach for managing a disease to the results of other approaches. Comparative effectiveness usually compares two or more types of treatment, such as different drugs, for the same disease. Comparative effectiveness also can compare types of surgery or other kinds of medical procedures and tests. The results often are summarized in a systematic review.
-
Outcome
- The end result of health care practices. There are many kinds of outcomes. How long people live following a health care treatment is one kind of outcome, known as survival. Other outcomes measure the effects a treatment has on people’s lives, such as changes in their ability to function or changes in their quality of life. Outcomes also include undesirable events such as side effects of drugs. Another type of outcome is whether people needed to change to another kind of treatment.
-
Systematic Review
- A summary of the clinical literature. A systematic review is a critical assessment and evaluation of all research studies that address a particular clinical issue. The researchers use an organized method of locating, assembling, and evaluating a body of literature on a particular topic using a set of specific criteria. A systematic review typically includes a description of the findings of the collection of research studies. The systematic review may also include a quantitative pooling of data, called a meta-analysis.
What Is the Research Process?
Comparative effectiveness research can be systematic reviews of existing evidence or original research where evidence is generated. In both cases, researchers are determining the effectiveness or comparative effectiveness of any test, procedure, or treatment.
Comparative effectiveness reviews are conducted by an Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC) using rigorous methods and guidelines. Researchers review clinical research and clinical trials, along with other research studies, to answer the key questions.
Sometimes, there are not enough studies available to conduct a systematic review. In these cases, two other Effective Health Care Program research networks conduct original research to provide new evidence of outcomes and potential adverse effects or events that might be associated with a test, procedure, or treatment. These networks are: the DEcIDE (Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions about Effectiveness) Network and the Centers for Education & Research on Therapeutics (CERTS).
The graphic below describes the steps used by the Program to generate, synthesize, and translate evidence. Persons using assistive technology may open the content included in the graphic below in a new page.
.png)
E-mail Updates