Does comparative-effectiveness research threaten personalized medicine?

The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act gives comparative-effectiveness research (CER) a large boost in funding over the next 2 years. Despite a consensus that better information about the relative effectiveness of different medical interventions is needed to improve the quality and value of care, some view CER with skepticism. Recently, the Partnership to Improve Patient Care, a coalition of 36 industry, patient-advocacy, and clinician organizations, raised concerns that CER will not take adequate account of individual patient differences and may impede the development and adoption of improvements in medical care and “stymie progress in personalized medicine.”1 (May 7, 2009)