Objective: To provide an overview of comparative effectiveness research (CER) methodology and discuss the challenges of health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) in wound care. Approach: Narrative description of HEOR methodology with supporting references. Results: With the increasing costs of clinical trials, the use of observational studies in a real-world setting will be essential. Wound care clinicians should understand the importance of proper methods for conducting CER studies. Propensity score methods and marginal structural modeling can create a "quasi-randomized" environment for measuring wound closure and can help drive informed decision-making. In wound care, a paucity of HEOR information is available with great reluctance to use this information by payers, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and other agencies. Furthermore, a limited amount of high-quality retrospective data to measure wound care outcomes exist. The U.S. Wound Registry is one of few data sources that accurately reports on outcomes for all wound types and is a Qualified Clinical Data Registry. Innovation and Conclusions: Several CER approaches in observational studies provide sufficiently detailed information to help decision-makers make informed choices about wound care products regarding efficacy in the real-world setting. Using CER and cost-effectiveness studies succinctly needs to be incorporated if progress is to be made in improving wound care outcomes and reducing cost.
Keywords: comparative effectiveness; health economics; outcomes research; wound care.