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Pharmacoepidemiology & Patient Safety

Study Examples | Key Publications | Intro

With the steady rise in medication use, society is struggling to make more informed decisions about whether the benefits of medications outweigh the risks. It has become increasingly important to determine whether drugs are safe, effective, and cost-effective in the general population. Although clinical trials are essential in determining the efficacy of drugs, they are generally not designed to detect meaningful differences in potentially rare adverse events; nor do they represent many populations such as children, women, minorities, and the elderly.

High-quality longitudinal data and a broad population base that represents the community both make Group Health Cooperative an ideal setting for conducting this research. To answer questions on the safety and effectiveness of medications relevant to our community and nation, Group Health Center for Health Studies (CHS) researchers collaborate with the Group Health Pharmacy Administration Department, the University of Washington, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and other health plans in the HMO Research Network.

In 1999, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) set up the Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics (CERTs), a national network of seven research organizations, to conduct research and provide education on such issues. The CERTs, which AHRQ administers in consultation with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), aim to advance better use of drugs, medical devices, and biological products. The multicenter research environment of the HMO Research Network’s CERT has several strengths for research in drug safety and effectiveness. These include exploring ways of measuring the impact of efforts to change the behavior of patients and health care providers; and answering pharmacoeconomic and pharmacogenetic questions.

By combining populations from 10 health plans, the HMO Research Network’s CERT researchers can:

• Study 4 percent of U.S. residents—enough to address many topics beyond the power of individual health plans
• Investigate groups that are ethnically and geographically diverse
• Work with a wide array of medical-care delivery models, representing various care patterns, benefits, and outcomes
• Create research teams with greater expertise than any single plan can develop

"Through our work, we provide scientific evidence that enables our patients and providers to make more informed decisions on health care," says Denise M. Boudreau, PhD, assistant investigator at CHS. "There are many benefits of working collaboratively on these issues."

Study Examples | Key Publications | Intro

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