Dr. Concannon recognized for his research on comparative effectiveness

BOSTON – April 24, 2012: The American Heart Association’s journal, Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, recently released a review of the most important papers on health costs, cost-effectiveness, and resource utilization. The list featured one of Dr. Thomas Concannon’s papers, and cited two of them. The paper featured on the list, “Comparative effectiveness of ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction regionalization strategies,” compared several scenarios for increasing access to percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Dr. Concannon and colleagues found that an emergency medical service systems-based strategy of detection and diversion of patients with STEMI to PCI-capable hospitals is more effective and less costly than any strategy involving the construction and staffing of new PCI facilities. In conducting this research, Dr. Concannon has developed a patient- and region-sensitive methodology for comparing strategies to increase access to PCI.

In a subsequent paper also cited in the Circulation review, Dr. Concannon found that robust expansion in the number of PCI programs at U.S. hospitals has only modestly increased access to the procedure, as many of the new facilities are proximate to existing facilities. State of the art methodologies used in Dr. Concannon’s studies on PCI can be applied to many contexts beyond PCI, and outside of academia. Methods from Dr. Concannon’s research on access to care can be used by providers applying for Certificates of Need or developing service line strategies, and by payers working on designing provider networks that provide adequate in-network access.

For more information on the list of important papers, please see Dharmarajan, et al. 2012. “Most Important Papers in Health Costs, Cost-Effectiveness, and Resource Utilization,” Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. 5: e9-e15.