The Radiation Oncology Institute recently announced a call for submissions of research proposals designed to evaluate today’s currently available radiation therapies based on comparative and cost-effectiveness value. The institute will be prioritizing proposals that include plans to use the latest and most comprehensive patient registries open to research today, including CMS, insurance claims and payment, those of the state, and other datasets specific to certain types of cancer.
Patient or disease registries are established to help researchers, academics, companies, and medical professionals keep evidence-based tabs on the latest trends in healthcare, whether it is for post-marketing surveillance of pharmaceuticals or evaluating how effective certain interventions are.
Proposals submitted to the ROI may center around any of, but not limited to, the following sample topics:
- Examine the factors that affect access to or the outcomes and costs of loco-regional control and functional preservation
- Analysis of lost productivity in the workplace for patients and their caregivers due to the impact of their care, with particular note of alternative approaches (radiotherapy versus surgical, systemic or other approaches) using retrospective administrative datasets
- Evaluate the comparative and/or cost-effectiveness of definitive radiation therapy modalities compared to surgical or other definitive approaches, particularly comparing radiotherapy to non-radiotherapy treatments (e.g. stereotactic body radiotherapy versus surgery)
- Evaluate the comparative and/or cost-effectiveness or comparative productivity gains associated with adjuvant radiotherapy compared to other adjuvant approaches (chemotherapy or biologics); of particular interest are comparisons of the value of adjuvant radiotherapy in disease sites (e.g. prevalent cancers such as breast lung, prostate and gastrointestinal cancers) where Level I evidence supports its use to the value of adjuvant systemic therapies.
The ROI will be giving special consideration to research proposals that plan to investigate any of the following sets of factors on how they impact accessibility, use, quality of care, treatment outcomes, and costs of radiotherapy in comparison with non-radiation treatments:
- Patient, provider, facility, hospital and healthcare system structural factors
- Structure and capacity of cancer delivery
- Insurance plan benefit designs, accountable care organizations (ACOs), medical homes and other insurance structures
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The President of the ROI, Theodore S. Lawrence, MD, PhD, FASTRO, said that while it is important for research and development to constantly seek new and better treatments and modalities to improve patient outcomes, it is equally necessary to regularly monitor these advancements’ efficacy and cost-effectiveness. The institute looks forward to provide researchers funded opportunities to determine comparative values of various radiotherapies, and ultimately help improve rendered care to patients.
Working with the ROI on this new research project are the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM).
