A flexible approach to evidentiary standards for comparative effectiveness research.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act established a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to identify and address research priorities for comparative effectiveness research. Among its many responsibilities, the institute has been charged with setting priorities, developing methodological standards, and communicating research results to decision makers. In this paper we consider how the institute can support the different standards for acceptable evidence used by various government agencies, providers, patients, and other decision makers. We argue that the public interest will best be served if the institute develops a balanced and flexible approach to deciding which types of studies to fund.