Health care payers and providers don’t have to look far to get unbiased, independent judgment about the evidence on name-brand drugs and devices now that ECRI Institute has introduced The Evidence Bar.
While ECRI Institute’s custom rapid reviews have long complemented health care professionals’ day-to-day value analysis and policy-making decisions, the newly enhanced executive summary equips users with a visual, at-a-glance tool.
“With our new Evidence Bar and restructured summary format, health professionals can now more quickly and confidently inform their decisions on new and emerging interventions,” says Vivian H. Coates, MBA, vice president, health technology assessment, ECRI Institute.
The Evidence Bar is ECRI Institute’s proprietary approach to weighing the benefits and harms of a specific, name-brand drug or device. The bar shows one of five possible indicators, each aligning with a specific judgment about the evidence on a technology: unfavorable, raises concerns, inconclusive, favors, or greatly favors the technology.
“Available evidence rarely addresses every key question and is almost never firmly conclusive. Whereas others may assign a low rating to inconclusive evidence – implying that one should disregard the technology – The Evidence Bar signals payers and providers to proceed with caution and stay tuned for more developments,” says Diane C. Robertson, director, health technology assessment, ECRI Institute.
Value analysis specialists from large national health systems and medical policy directors from payers validated the tool and new-and-improved executive summary. They confirmed that the new approach provides a quick, clear picture of safety, efficacy, and future evidence development for committee meetings. Early feedback indicated that the executive summary is easily read and understood in less than three minutes.
To learn more about The Evidence Bar or ECRI Institute’s Health Technology Assessment Information Service, visit www.ecri.org/htais or contact ECRI Institute by telephone at 610-825-6000, ext. 5440.
