Comparative effectiveness research: challenges for medical journals.

In order to optimize health outcomes within the constraints of inevitably limited resources, low- and high-income countries alike require unbiased means of assessing health care interventions for their relative effectiveness. Such interventions include diagnostic tests and treatments (both established and newly developed) and implementation of health policy (1). Likewise, health care professionals and patients need better information to inform health care decisions that require weighing benefits and risks in light of the patient’s medical history and personal preferences.