17 January 2020 - Pragmatic or practice-oriented comparative effectiveness trials may be conducted to fill the evidence gaps that are revealed after the private sector has performed the trials needed for bringing their product to the market. 

A tool of increasing importance to identify such evidence gaps is resulting from health technology assessments whereby the data derived from clinical research are examined in a systematic manner with reference to effect, safety, as well as additional parameters. 

Practice-oriented trials are informative for healthcare decision makers, practice-changing and may even be cost-saving for the health care payers. There are however only a limited number of funding sources for such trials.

Read International Journal of Technology Assessment of Health Care article