Latest updates on ACP's priorities, initiatives
ACP Spotlight offers readers a look at ACP's current top priorities and initiatives, as well as highlights from our e-newsletter, I.M. Matters Weekly from ACP.
ACP develops framework for economic evidence in clinical guidelines
In recognition of accelerating health care spending and the impact on patients, ACP has developed a framework to standardize its approach to identifying, appraising, and considering economic evidence in the development of clinical guidelines. The framework, which aligns with ACP's principles of promoting high-value care, is titled “Incorporating Economic Evidence in Clinical Guidelines: A Framework from the Clinical Guidelines Committee of the American College of Physicians” and was published Dec. 31, 2024, by Annals of Internal Medicine.
This framework presents and explains the process that ACP's Clinical Guidelines Committee utilizes for incorporating economic evidence into clinical recommendations. Eligible economic evidence includes cost-effectiveness analyses, economic outcomes in randomized controlled trials, and resource utilization (intervention cost) data. To develop a clinical recommendation, the committee first and foremost assesses the best available evidence for the clinical net benefit of interventions, weighing the benefits and harms. Patient values and preferences also play a major role in formulating the recommendations. After an intervention has been determined to have clinical net benefit, economic evidence may be considered in prioritizing among recommended interventions of equal effectiveness or modifying the strength of recommendations. The committee's goal is to always inform clinicians about interventions' costs to enhance awareness about the burden on patients and support shared cost-conscious prescribing in real-life settings.
Learn more about internal medicine physician leaders
As part of ACP's campaign to educate about the vital roles of internal medicine physicians and the value they bring to health care, a new feature spotlights internal medicine physician leaders in a variety of roles and settings. The most recent profile features Swapnil Patel, MD, FACP, detailing how his training in internal medicine laid the foundation for his role as a leader in health care.
Read this and other profiles. If you are interested in being featured as an internal medicine physician leader, please contact Laura Baldwin at lbaldwin@acponline.org.
ICYMI: Highlights from I.M. Matters Weekly
- Decision aids improved afib patients' knowledge. A trial of decision aids for patients and clinicians found that patients with atrial fibrillation engaged in better shared decision making about stroke prevention treatment with these interventions than if they were randomized to usual care. The study was published Jan. 9 by BMJ and summarized in the Jan. 14 I.M. Matters Weekly from ACP.
- Antiseizure medications linked with many obstetrical, perinatal complications Women who took antiseizure medication had a more than doubled risk of spontaneous miscarriage, but separating the effects of the medical conditions necessitating these medications from those of the medications themselves is difficult, a meta-analysis of 75 studies found. It was published by Neurology on Jan. 7 and summarized in the Jan. 14 I.M. Matters Weekly from ACP.
