Boston, Mass., December 19, 2012 – The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) is seeking nominations of clinicians as well as patient and public representatives to serve on the New England Comparative Effectiveness Public Advisory Council (CEPAC). CEPAC is a regional body that provides objective, independent guidance on the application of medical evidence to clinical practice and payer policy decisions across New England. Initially supported by a federal grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and with backing from a consortium of New England state health policy leaders, CEPAC holds public meetings to consider evidence reviews of medical tests and treatments and provide judgments regarding how the evidence can best be used across New England to improve the quality and value of health care services. This round of nominations will result in the third iteration of CEPAC. New council members will be elected to serve for a three-year term. No council member is able to serve more than two consecutive three-year terms, though after one-year of absence, former council members are eligible to serve on CEPAC again.
CEPAC is an independent body of 19 members, composed of clinicians as well as patient and public representatives from each New England state, and two ex-officio payer representatives. All nominees must have skills in the interpretation and application of medical evidence in health care delivery, including training in fields such as epidemiology, health services research, health economics, and decision sciences; or practical experience in public health administration, system planning, and/or evaluation; public or private payer medical affairs; hospital or provider group quality management; and policy efforts to improve access to healthcare. With this third iteration of CEPAC, members will be appointed to serve a three-year term. CEPAC day-long public meetings are held twice yearly in locations across New England. The next CEPAC meeting will take place in June 2013.
All CEPAC members are eligible for travel reimbursement and all non ex-officio members receive $500 honoraria per meeting. To reduce the appearance of possible conflict of interest, prospective nominees, excluding ex-officio candidates, cannot be current employees of any New England state health agency, private insurer, or life sciences industry company. They may not have substantial financial interests in the healthcare industry, defined as more than $10,000 in healthcare company stock or more than $5,000 in honoraria or consultancies during the previous year from healthcare manufacturers or insurers.
ICER directs the CEPAC selection process and manages CEPAC as its flagship initiative meant to develop and test new ways to adapt evidence reviews to improve their usefulness for patients, clinicians, and payers.
All CEPAC nominations should be submitted to ICER on or before February 19, 2013 and the final selection will be completed shortly thereafter. An online application form is available on ICER’s website at www.icer-review.org. Nomination by sponsoring organizations and self-nominations are both welcome. All nominations should be accompanied by a CV and a letter of interest from the nominee. Questions regarding activities of the CEPAC and eligibility of nominees can be addressed to Sarah Jane Reed at sjreed@icer-review.org, 617-643-4568.
About CEPAC
CEPAC is a regional body whose goal is to provide objective, independent guidance on the application of medical evidence to clinical practice and payer policy decisions across New England. Initially supported by a federal grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and with backing from a consortium of New England state health policy leaders, CEPAC holds public meetings to consider evidence reviews of medical tests and treatments and provide judgments regarding how the evidence can best be used across New England to improve the quality and value of healthcare services. CEPAC consists of practicing physicians with experience in evaluating and using evidence in the practice of healthcare, methodological experts, as well as patient/public members with experience in health policy, patient advocacy and public health. ICER manages the day-to-day operations of CEPAC with the input of a multi-stakeholder Advisory Board. A list of CEPAC members and Advisory Board members, as well as other information about the project, is available online at cepac.icer-review.org.
About ICER
The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), based at the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Institute for Technology Assessment (ITA) and an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, provides independent evaluation of the clinical effectiveness and comparative value of new and emerging technologies. Structured as a fully transparent organization, ICER seeks to achieve its ultimate mission of informing public policy and spurring innovation in the use of evidence to improve the value of health care for all. For more information, please visit www.icer-review.org.
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