Breast Cancer: Setting Priorities for Effectiveness Research

Excerpt

As part of its planning for an “Effectiveness Initiative,” the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in late 1988 to conduct workshops on research topics and methods for three high-priority clinical conditions: breast cancer, acute myocardial infarction, and hip fracture. The research workshops had three objectives: (1) to examine each clinical condition in detail; (2) to identify key patient management topics for each condition that deserve further investigation in terms of “effectiveness” as contrasted with “efficacy”; and (3) to propose appropriate research strategies and methods. To conduct these workshops, the IOM appointed special study committees, and this report documents the IOM committee's recommendations from the workshop on breast cancer.