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The Tension Between Evidence-based and Experience-based Medicine

The Tension Between Evidence-based and Experience-based Medicine. Kent Bottles, MD President of ICSI, Bloomington, MN, www.icsi.org Tufts Summer Institute on Web Strategies for Health Communication July 20, 2010 Boston, MA. Evidence-based Medicine.

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The Tension Between Evidence-based and Experience-based Medicine

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  1. The Tension Between Evidence-based and Experience-based Medicine Kent Bottles, MD President of ICSI, Bloomington, MN, www.icsi.org Tufts Summer Institute on Web Strategies for Health Communication July 20, 2010 Boston, MA

  2. Evidence-based Medicine • “Evidence-based medicine is the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients.” • Analysis of literature • Pick best treatment • Movement

  3. Evidence-Based Medicine &Patient-Centered Choice Good evidence/ Important to patient EVIDENCE B. Good evidence IMPORTANT A B C. Potential for good evidence D C E D. Important to patient choice/potential for good evidence E. Important to patient choice/ No potential for evidence A. L. Cochrane, from T. Hope Evidence-based patient choice and the doctor patient relationship in But Will it Work Doctor? Kings Fund, London 1997, 20 – 24

  4. Canadian Cancer Society RFPManske SR, et.al., AJHP 18:409-423, 2004 • Do group counseling programs for smoking cessation work? • What is the best content for such a session? • How many sessions should be offered? • Who should facilitate such sessions?

  5. Canadian Cancer Society RFPManske SR, et.al., AJHP 18:409-423, 2004 • 40 year comprehensive literature review • Deficiencies in purpose, design, and reporting • Research could only answer one of the four questions posed by Cancer Society

  6. Evidence-based MedicineICSI Evidence Grading System • Primary Reports of New Data Collection • Class A: Randomized, controlled trial • Class B: Cohort study • Class C: Nonrandomized trial, case controlled • Class D: Case series, case reports • Reports that Synthesize Primary Reports • Class M: Meta-analysis, decision analysis • Class R: Consensus statement, consensus report • Class X: Medical Opinion

  7. Evidence-based MedicineConclusion Grading System Grade I: Conclusion is supported by good evidence Grade II: Conclusion is supported by fair evidence Grade III: Conclusion is supported by limited evidence Grade not assignable

  8. Guideline Challenges for Patients with Multiple Conditions • Interactions between illnesses • Interactions between treatments • Tension between therapeutic goals • Multiple providers • Multiple medications

  9. Guidelines and Measures • We measure what is easy to measure • We do not always identify what is important clinically and then figure out how to measure the outcome • We need to place more emphasis on what metrics are important to measure what is important

  10. Clinical Practice Guidelines • Professional consensus about what to do • Codification of standards of care • Source of legitimacy for quality measures • Educational tool • Strategy to improve quality • Solution to practice variation

  11. Evidence-based Medicine • Why would anyone be against that? • Demotes ex cathedra statements of experts to least valid form of evidence

  12. Why Doctors & Patients Do Not Always Select Best Treatments? • Knowledge gaps • Skills gaps • System barriers • Technology barriers • Misaligned incentives

  13. Why do Some Doctors Reject EBD? • Psychological immune system that operates unconsciously to maintain our positive image of ourselves • “When it comes to maintaining a sense of well-being, each of us is the ultimate spin doctor.” Gilbert and Wilson • Humans are hardwired to think highly of themselves & their abilities as physicians • Cornell study shows subjects over- estimated their own charity purchases, but were accurate about other people’s action • MBA students estimate of their own contributions to team projects at 139%

  14. Evidence-based Medicine • Tonelli believes EBM discounts clinical experience • Certain groups (women, minorities, pts with multiple conditions, etc) are under-researched • Funding sources dictate what gets researched • Does measurement and science explain everything that is important in the world? • EBM does not evaluate tacit knowledge

  15. American Medicine Gets It Right 55% of the time McGlynn EA, et. al. The quality of health care delivered to adults in the United States. N Engl J Med 2003: 348 (26): 2635-45 (June 26)

  16. RAND Study Details • Alcohol dependence 11% • Peptic ulcer 33% • Diabetes 45% • Prenatal care 73% • Breast cancer 76% • Cataracts 79%

  17. Improving the Quality of American Health Care in the 21st Century • Not about motivating clinicians to work harder or be concerned about safety • “The complexity of modern American medicine exceeds the capacity of the unaided human mind.” D. Eddy, MD • It is about system leadership providing doctors with the IT data feedback tools to save more lives

  18. Complexity of MedicineAnn Intern Med 2001;135:309-12 • 6,000 articles / day • 150,000 articles / month • 300,000 RCTs • 20,000 biomedical journals

  19. Complexity of Medicine “Asking an individual doctor to rely on his memory to store and retrieve all the facts relevant to patient care is like asking travel agents to memorize airline schedules.” L. Weed, M.D.

  20. Protocols Can Improve Care • Measure, learn from, and eliminate variation arising from professionals; retain variation arising from patients. • Select a high priority care process. • Adopt an evidence-based best practice guideline. • Blend the guideline into clinical work. • Use the guideline as a shared baseline with clinicians free to vary based on individual patient .

  21. VA Tools to Implement Evidence-based Medicine • Provider education (CME, guidelines) • HIT (Reminders, decision support, registry) • Performance Measurements & Reporting • Pharmacy Benefits Management (Formulary, pre-approval, co-pay policy) • Patient Education (MyHealthVet, self-management support)

  22. Developing A Center For Comparative Effectiveness Health Affairs, 11/7/2006 • Australia: Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme • UK: National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence • Canada: Common Drug Review • Germany: Institute for Quality and Efficiency

  23. National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) • Postcode lottery scandals • 270 member staff and $50 million per year • Usually does not recommend treatments whose cost per quality-adjusted-life-year is more than $40,000 • Publishes appraisals of treatments for NHS • Based on clinical effectiveness • Based on cost effectiveness

  24. National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) • Consultee and commentator organizations • Independent academic center writes “assessment report” • “Evaluation report” • Independent Appraisal Committee writes “final appraisal determination”

  25. National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) • Royal National Institute of Blind People accussed NICE of “incompetence” over delay in approving drug used in Scotland • Renal Cell Carcinoma treatments • Bevacizumab, sorafenib, sunitinib • Alzheimer’s disease treatments • Donepezil, galantamine, memantine

  26. Saying No Isn’t NICERobert Steinbrook, NEJM, 359; 19: 1977-1981, November 6, 2008 • “NICE can be viewed as either a heartless rationing agency or an intrepid and impartial messenger for the need to set priorities in health care.” • NICE has to “be fair to all the patients in the National Health Service…If we spend a lot of money on a few patients, we have less money to spend on everyone else. We are not trying to be unkind or cruel. We are trying to look after everybody”

  27. Uwe E. Reinhardt • The opposition to cost-effectiveness analysis comes from two distinct groups • “The first group includes individuals or enterprises that book other people’s health care spending as their own health care income” • “The second group…includes individuals who sincerely believe that health and life are ‘priceless’ -- for them cost should never be allowed to enter clinical decisions”

  28. Uwe E. Reinhardt • “It is an utterly romantic notion and, if I may say so, also an utterly silly one. No society could ever act consistently on such a credo” • “In their daily decisions, American citizens and their political representatives routinely trade health and life for money, which allows economists to infer the value-per-life-year the decision makers had in mind.”

  29. US to Compare Medical Treatments R. Pear, NY Times, February 16, 2009 • Doubters • Betsy McCaughey • Rush Limbaugh • Congressional Black Caucus • Society for Women’s Health Research • Proponents • Senator H. Clinton • Rep. Pete Stark • Consumers Union • Dr. Elliott Fisher

  30. Harnessing Comparative Effectiveness:An Initiative to Improve the Value of Care for Localized Prostate Cancer For further information: www.icer-review.org Steven D. Pearson, MD, MSc, FRCP

  31. ICER Integrated Evidence Rating Comparative Clinical Effectiveness Aa AbAc Superior A Incremental B Comparable C Unproven U/P Insufficient I BaBb Bc Ca Cb Cc Ua UbUc I II a b c High Reasonable/ Low Comparable Comparative Value

  32. The Project to Improve Prostate Cancer Care • Localized prostate cancer: the opportunity • Approximately 4,200 new cases per 1 million men • Significant variation in care patterns across the US • Patients and clinicians have time to consider options • Approximate prices paid for radiation therapy options • 3D-CRT = $10,000 • Brachytherapy = $10,000 • IMRT = $20,000-$40,000 • Proton beam = $50,000-$80,000

  33. BrachytherapyBa IMRTBc Proton Beam Therapy = Ic Radiation for prostate cancer Comparative Clinical Effectiveness Aa AbAc Superior A Incremental B Comparable C Unproven U/P Insufficient I BaBb Bc Ca Cb Cc Ua UbUc I II a b c High Reasonable/ Low Comparable Comparative Value

  34. From Comparative Effectiveness to Medical Policy Brachytherapy Ba Patient informationPremium price 0% co-pay ++ Pay for performance Patient information Lower reimbursed price20% co-pay-- Pay for performance IMRT Bc Patient informationNon-coverageReference price/CED Proton Beam Ic

  35. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 • $1.1 billion for comparative effectiveness research • AHRQ: $300 million • NIH: $400 million • Office of the HHS Secretary: $400 million

  36. HHS Definition of CER • Comparative effectiveness is conducting and synthesizing of research comparing the benefits and harms of different interventions and strategies to prevent, diagnose, treat, and monitor health conditions in “real world” settings.

  37. Money TalksRyan Lizza, The New Yorker, May 4, 2009 “He became obsessed with the findings of a research team at Dartmouth showing some regions…spend far more money on health care than others but that patients in those high-spending areas don’t have better outcomes than those in regions that spend less money”

  38. Money TalksRyan Lizza, The New Yorker, May 4, 2009 “If spending more on health care has no correlation with making people healthier, then there must be enormous savings that a smart government, by determining precisely which medical procedures are worth financing and which are not, could wring out of the system.”

  39. Money TalksRyan Lizza, The New Yorker, May 4, 2009 “At the core of both the stimulus bill and the Obama budget is Orzag’s belief that a government empowered with research on the most effective medical treatments can, using the proper incentives, persuade doctors to become more efficient health-care providers, thus saving billions of dollars.”

  40. Money TalksRyan Lizza, The New Yorker, May 4, 2009 “Paul Ryan and other Republicans had seized on health-cost controls as the issue they believed would bring down Obama’s health-care plan and, with it, they surely hoped, his Presidency.... Orzag’s obession with ‘comparative effectiveness’…will lead to vast government intrusion into the doctor-patient relationship.”

  41. Money TalksRyan Lizza, The New Yorker, May 4, 2009 “Obama is in effect betting his Presidency on Orzag’s thesis.”

  42. Obama InterviewD. Leonhardt, After the Great Recession, NY Times Magazine, May 3, 2009 “There’s always going to be an asymmetry of information between patient and provider. And part of what I think government can do effectively is to be an honest broker in assessing and evaluating treatment options. And certainly that’s true when it come to Medicare and Medicaid, where taxpayers are footing the bill.”

  43. Obama InterviewD. Leonhardt, After the Great Recession, NY Times Magazine, May 3, 2009 “So when Peter Orzag and I talk about the importance of using comparative-effectiveness studies as a way of reining in costs, that’s not an attempt to micromanage the doctor-patient relationship. It is an attempt to say…we’ve looked at some objective studies…concluding that the blue pill, which costs half as much as the red pill, is just as effective, and you might want to go ahead and get the blue one. And if a provider is pushing the red one…, then you should at least ask some important questions.”

  44. Obama InterviewD. Leonhardt, After the Great Recession, NY Times Magazine, May 3, 2009 “If it turns out that doctors in Florida are spending 25% more on treating their patients as doctors in Minnesota, and the doctors in Minnesota are getting outcomes that are just as good -- then us going down to Florida and pointing out that this is how folks in Minnesota are doing it…--I think that conversation will ultimately yield some significant savings and some significant benefits.”

  45. The Big FixDavid Leonhardt, NY Times Magazine, February 1, 2009 • Small area variation in Medicare spending • High spending areas like Miami, Texas, southern New Jersey • Low spending areas like Minnesota, Iowa, New Mexico, Virginia

  46. The Big FixDavid Leonhardt, NY Times Magazine, February 1, 2009 • Mitchell Seltzer • Doctors who spend more don’t get better results than their conservative colleagues • Patients of aggressive doctors stay sick longer and die sooner because of risks of aggressive care

  47. The Big FixDavid Leonhardt, NY Times Magazine, February 1, 2009 • Mitchell Seltzer • To turn less efficient docs into more efficient docs need national data from EMRs • CMS will have to stop reimbursing for some expensive treatments that are not very effective

  48. Medical vs. Semiconductor Research “When I was doing semiconductor device research, it was expected that I would compare my results with other people’s previously published results and that I would comment on the differences.”

  49. Medical vs. Semiconductor Research “But it seemed to be different in medicine. Medical practitioners primarily tended to publish their own data; they often didn’t compare their data with the data of other practitioners, even in their own field, let alone with the results of other types of treatments for the same condition.” Andy Grove, Forbes 5/13/96

  50. Though Results Are Unproven Robotic Surgery Wins Converts G. Kolata, NY Times, Feb 14, 2010 • Robotic surgery costs more • $1,500 to $2,000 per patient • Not clear if outcomes are better, worse, or the same as surgery without robot • No large studies planned or under way

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