US IoM calls for federal Rx effectiveness database

A report published by the Institute of Medicine has called for the creation of a central, public US government-administered database of late-stage clinical studies measuring the effectiveness of health treatments, including prescription drugs. The IoM argues that such a resource, if operated or funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, could reduce some of the estimated $3,000.0 billion of health care spending annually.

Barbara McNeil, one of the IoM study's authors and head of the department of health care policy at the Harvard School of Medicine, told Reuters: "we need a way to synthesize data about the effectiveness of health care products and services in a standardized, objective fashion that will be considered reliable and trustworthy by all decision makers."