Topic Selection

Topic Selection

The assessment process begins with topic selection.

For drug topics, in addition to receiving recommendations from the public, ICER scans publicly available information and also benefits from a collaboration with IPD Analytics, an independent organization that performs analyses of the emerging drug pipeline for a diverse group of industry stakeholders, including payers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, providers, and wholesalers. IPD provides a tailored report on the drug pipeline on a courtesy basis to ICER but does not prioritize topics for specific ICER assessments.
For non-drug topics, ICER takes recommendations from the public as well.

ICER prioritizes potential topics that:

Represent important new treatments or other interventions that offer significant potential for improved patient outcomes, such as drugs with new mechanisms of action or delivery system innovations that could change the paradigm of care for many patients
Are likely to raise new questions about the comparative clinical effectiveness of similar treatments
Have the potential for significant financial impact on patients and the health system, either by the costs of the intervention itself or by setting a pricing precedent that may affect many other treatments
That present new opportunities to improve health outcomes and/or health system value through specific clinical or policy actions by payers, physicians, patients and policymakers
Are particularly relevant to the public due to prevalence, severity, disparities, and cost
Are likely to receive FDA approval within 1 year [emerging drug or device therapies only]
Examine potentially overused or underused treatments or tests
Address wide variation in approaches to delivery system design and/or financing
Involve underserved populations with the potential to reduce health disparities
May leverage current health reform initiatives

After selecting a report topic, ICER assigns the report to a public meeting of one of its three independent appraisal committees (CTAF, Midwest CEPAC, and New England CEPAC). Decisions regarding which committee reviews each report are based largely on the timing of meetings, so that the evidence review will be completed at a time when it will be most useful to the public (e.g., near FDA approval of a new medicine).