NYTimes: "This Drug Is Safe and Effective. Wait. Compared With What?"

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/20/upshot/medical-treatments-compared-important-everyday-questions.html

A couple of excerpts:

We spend many billions of dollars each year on the discovery and development of new drugs, but almost none of it addresses two crucial questions: How do these new therapies compare with already known ones? What are the relative benefits and harms in a particular situation, for a person like you?

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Consider antibiotics. In my work as a pediatrician, questions about their use come up a lot. Which drug is the best first-line therapy for which common illnesses? We don’t know. How long should we treat for different infections? We don’t know. What are the relative trade-offs between benefits and side effects in different patients in different circumstances? We don’t know.

The questions we need answered are legion. All the guidelines and practices we have are best guesses.

Comparative effectiveness research can take on many forms and involve more than drugs.