CIMIT and MGH Physician Named to
Medicare Committee, Reports in Annals of Surgery
Cost Effective Treatment for Liver Cancer Patients
Boston, MA – March 23, 2003 -- G. Scott Gazelle, MD, MPH, PhD, was
recently named to The Medicare Coverage Advisory Committee (MCAC), which
provides guidance to The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
on clinical topics under review for Medicare coverage. Dr. Gazelle, who has
an article in April’s Annals of Surgery, is CIMIT Technology Assessment
Program Leader, and is the Director and founder of the Institute for Technology
Assessment, Massachusetts General Hospital. CIMIT is the collaborative Center
for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology.
Dr. Gazelle noted: “With my background in health policy, participating in the Medicare process is a natural extension of what I do. I am thrilled to be a part of it.” With regard to the establishment of the MGH Institute for Technology Assessment Gazelle stated, “I consider it a CIMIT success. We were both growing. CIMIT needed an outcome and assessment program; we needed projects. We were the perfect match. Our program started 5 years ago and we have grown from a small program to an Institute. What we do is try to understand the benefits, costs, and appropriate use of new technologies.”
Annals of Surgery
A further extension of Dr. Gazelle’s work will be apparent in the article: “Cost-Effectiveness
of Hepatic Metastasectomy in Patients With Metastatic Colorectal Carcinoma
A State-Transition Monte Carlo Decision Analysis.” The focus was to
evaluate the cost-effectiveness of hepatic resection “metastasectomy” in
patients with metachronous liver metastases from colorectal carcinoma (CRC),
and to investigate the impact of operative and follow-up strategies on outcomes,
cost, and cost-effectiveness. Dr. Gazelle said: “The project started
with my CIMIT Faculty award in 1996, grew into my doctoral thesis, and is
now focused as an ROI grant. The research shows that surgery in this setting
is cost effective.”
About CIMIT
CIMIT® is a non-profit consortium of world-leading academic and research
institutions founded by Partners HealthCare System, Massachusetts General
Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, and Draper Laboratory. CIMIT’s mission is to improve patient
care by bringing together scientists, engineers, and clinicians to catalyze
development of innovative technology, emphasizing minimally invasive diagnosis
and therapy.
CIMIT’s Technology Assessment and Outcomes Analysis Program helps doctors decide which treatments to offer using rigorous analyses of the relative effectiveness, costs, and outcomes of promising new diagnostic and therapeutic technologies. It provides data that helps guide investment decisions, technology development and, further, helps demonstrate the value of new technologies to the public, physicians, payers, and legislators.
The MCAC
On the Medicare Commission’s Advisory Committee, which allows only
100 members, Dr. Gazelle will work with others to specifically review evidence
regarding specific clinical topics and provide advice to CMS according to
a framework of issues/questions established by CMS.