PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA — ECRI has announced significant enhancements to its clinical evidence assessments (CEAs), providing healthcare providers, payors, and researchers with clearer, more accessible insights into the safety and effectiveness of medical interventions and treatments. This expansion includes new data visualization tools and an emphasis on transparency, aiming to streamline decision-making in an increasingly complex healthcare environment.
ECRI’s CEAs utilize the GRADE methodology (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation) to rigorously but rapidly evaluate emerging healthcare trends. Topics covered include wound care products, obesity treatments, AI-enabled medical devices, and other digital health innovations. By offering unbiased reports, ECRI helps hospitals, value analysis teams, and payors prioritize treatments and technologies supported by the best available evidence.
“Healthcare decision makers are inundated daily with new technologies making bold claims of clinical superiority and outcome improvement. They have very limited time to separate fact from fiction and make informed decisions,” said Evan LeGault, ECRI’s Director of Clinical Evidence. “Right up front, our expanded assessments show the strength and quality of the evidence so our partners know right away whether they can trust the results. These reports help decision makers feel confident in their choices with a new level of transparency in the findings.”
The expanded CEAs include one-page summaries enhanced with color-coded data visualizations. These features provide quick insights into ECRI’s confidence in available clinical evidence, based on the quality and design of the studies analyzed. The summaries are designed to guide evidence-based initiatives, improve patient safety, and support procurement and policy decisions.
ECRI’s updated process also considers equity implications for healthcare technologies. Each assessment examines how interventions affect health disparities, addressing factors like patient representation in clinical trials and barriers to care.
The organization’s impact is evident by the numbers:
- More than 3,000 CEAs available in ECRI’s Member library.
- Over 500 new topics assessed annually.
- Coverage of over 40% of medical procedure types.
- 2,500 clinical practice guidelines reviewed and disseminated yearly.
Recent assessments have addressed topics such as video-based patient monitoring, female external catheters, interventions to reduce hospital-acquired infections, and comparative sleep apnea treatments.
“Medical misinformation abounds right now — we named it one of our top ten patient safety concerns this year,” said Shannon Davila, MSN, RN, CIC, CPHQ, FAPIC, Executive Director of ECRI’s Total Systems Safety. “Our expanded assessments are especially critical in today’s healthcare environment to help our partners avoid unnecessary risk and make the best decisions for their patients and institutions.”
By enhancing the transparency, accessibility, and equity considerations of its CEAs, ECRI continues to solidify its role as a trusted authority in supporting safe and effective healthcare decision-making across the U.S. and beyond.
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