Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research: 2022 year in review

Author: Laura Dormer https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4868-8655 [email protected]Author Info & Affiliations

Publication: Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research

https://doi.org/10.57264/cer-2023-0026

In this month’s issue of the Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research (JCER), I am taking a look back at the content highlights from 2022, shining the spotlight on some of the papers that most drew our readers' attention throughout the year, as well as discussing some things to watch out for in 2023!

Content highlights of 2022

It is interesting to look back at the articles our readers have been particularly drawn to over the past year, as this always paints a picture of hot topics and important areas of research. I would first like to highlight the articles from across the JCER archive that drew the most readers in 2022 (Table 1) [1–10].

Table 1. Top Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research articles by readership in 2022^†.

Rank	Full-text downloads	Article type	Title	Study	Volume (issue)	Altmetric score	Dimensions score	Ref.
1	14,583	Review	Propensity score matching and inverse probability of treatment weighting to address confounding by indication in comparative effectiveness research of oral anticoagulants	Allan V, Ramagopalan SV, Mardekian J et al.	9(9)	10	50	[1]
2	9881	Systematic Review	How does risdiplam compare with other treatments for Types 1–3 spinal muscular atrophy: a systematic literature review and indirect treatment comparison	Aponte Ribero V, Daigl M, Martí Y et al.	11(5)	7	2	[2]
3	9655	Special Report	Unmeasured confounding in nonrandomized studies: quantitative bias analysis in health technology assessment	Leahy TP, Kent S, Sammon C et al.	11(12)	3	1	[3]
4	7033	Industry Update	R WE ready for reimbursement? A round up of developments in real-world evidence relating to health technology assessment: part 8	Simpson A, Ramagopalan SV	11(13)	0	2	[4]
5	6861	Research Article	Efficacy classification of modern therapies in multiple sclerosis	Samjoo IA, Worthington E, Drudge C et al.	10(6)	12	23	[5]
6	6148	Review	Comparison of weighting methods used in multicriteria decision analysis frameworks in healthcare with focus on low- and middle-income countries	Németh B, Molnár A, Bozóki S et al.	8(4)	3	62	[6]
7	5532	Systematic Review	Micronized purified flavonoid fraction in the treatment of hemorrhoidal disease	Godeberge P, Sheikh P, Lohsiriwat V, Jalife A, Shelygin Y	10(10)	1	7	[7]
8	5333	Review	Corticosteroid use in viral pneumonia: experience so far and the dexamethasone breakthrough in COVID-2019	Rafiullah M, Siddiqui K	9(18)	1	14	[8]
9	5296	White Paper	Gene therapy: evidence, value and affordability in the US healthcare system	Hampson G, Towse A, Pearson SD, Dreitlein WB, Henshall C	7(1)	36	70	[9]
10	5177	Meta-analysis	Comparison of ofatumumab and other disease-modifying therapies for relapsing multiple sclerosis: a network meta-analysis	Samjoo IA, Worthington E, Drudge C et al.	9(18)	13	30	[10]

†

As on 17 January 2023.

Both the most-read article in 2022, and the most read of all time, is a Review article by Allan et al. [1] examining the fundamentals of propensity score matching and inverse probability of treatment weighting, including applied examples. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this article continues to provide a valuable source of learning for our readers, with an introductory guide to these increasingly popular methods to address confounding by indication in real-world CER.

Methodological best practice is a topic of great interest, as shown by two more articles in this top 10 – Leahy et al., discussing unmeasured confounding in nonrandomized studies [3], and Németh et al. who conduct a comparison of weighting methods used in multicriteria decision analysis frameworks in healthcare [6].

Another popular feature in JCER, part 8 of Simpson and Ramagopalan’s regular Industry Update on real-world evidence makes it into the top 10 [4].

Of the articles published in Volume 11 itself (Table 2) [2–4,11–17], content on rare diseases features in two articles, with a Systematic Review from Aponte Ribero et al. on treatments for spinal muscular atrophy [2], and a Research Article from McDonald et al. on ataluren treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy [16].

Table 2. Top Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research 2021 articles by readership^†.

Rank	Full-text downloads	Article type	Title	Study	Volume (issue)	Altmetric score	Dimensions score	Ref.
1	10,125	Systematic Review	How does risdiplam compare with other treatments for Types 1–3 spinal muscular atrophy: a systematic literature review and indirect treatment comparison	Aponte Ribero V, Daigl M, Martí Y et al.	11(5)	7	2	[2]
2	9692	Special Report	Unmeasured confounding in nonrandomized studies: quantitative bias analysis in health technology assessment	Leahy TP, Kent S, Sammon C et al.	11(12)	3	1	[3]
3	7049	Industry Update	R WE ready for reimbursement? A round up of developments in real-world evidence relating to health technology assessment: part 8	Simpson A, Ramagopalan SV	11(13)	0	2	[4]
4	4497	Systematic Review	Indirect treatment comparison of anifrolumab efficacy vs belimumab in adults with systemic lupus erythematosus	Bruce IN, Golam S, Steenkamp J	11(10)	0	5	[11]
5	3129	Research Article	Palbociclib vs abemaciclib in HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer: an indirect comparison of patient-reported end points	Law E, Gavanji R, Walsh S, Haltner A, McTavish R, Cameron C	11(2)	1	0	[12]
6	2634	Short Communication	Impact of telehealth on healthcare resource utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic	Arora P, Mehta D, Ha J	11(5)	1	2	[13]
7	2433	Review	Vaginal laser therapy for gynecologic conditions: re-examining the controversy and where do we go from here	Zipper R, Lamvu G	11(11)	0	2	[14]
8	2257	Research Article	Effectiveness of bisoprolol vs other β-blockers and other antihypertensive classes: a cohort study in the Clinical Practice Research Datalink	Foch C, Allignol A, Hohenberger T, Boutmy E, Schaefer S, Hostalek U	11(6)	1	0	[15]
9	2240	Research Article	Ataluren delays loss of ambulation and respiratory decline in nonsense mutation Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients	McDonald CM, Muntoni F, Penematsa V	11(3)	2	7	[16]
10	2097	Industry Update	R WE ready for reimbursement? A round up of developments in real-world evidence relating to health technology assessment: part 9	Simpson A, Ramagopalan SV	11(16)	0	0	[17]

†

As on 16 January 2023.

The COVID-19 pandemic continued to make an impact on submissions and publications in 2022, with researchers starting to assess the longer-term impacts of the last few years. In their Short Communication article, Arora et al. examine the impact of telehealth on healthcare resource utilization during the pandemic [13].

Plain Language Summary of Publication articles

Plain language summaries (PLS) allow authors to explain their articles in a nontechnical way, making them more accessible to a range of stakeholders, including the general public, patients, patient advocates, nonspecialist clinicians, health policymakers, HTA and regulatory bodies, and a range of healthcare professionals. JCER provides several plain language options for authors, including PLS abstracts, PLS within the supplementary materials and Plain Language Summary of Publication articles (PLSPs), which are standalone articles published with their own unique DOI and are thus fully citable. These plain language, visually enriched articles can provide a summary of a key publication from JCER or elsewhere.

I mentioned in my Foreword to Volume 11 (2022) [18] that patient engagement was an important topic for discussion in JCER, and introduced the new article type – the PLSP – that we were planning to include in the journal. I am pleased to say that at the time of writing, JCER has published five PLSP articles [19–23], and we look forward to featuring more throughout 2023.

Coming up in 2023 – open access to all JCER content

Since its launch in 2012, JCER has published as a hybrid subscription journal. However, we were pleased to announce at the end of last year that from January 2023, the journal has converted to a fully open access model, reflecting the demand we have received from authors. With this move, we look forward to welcoming an even wider audience to the JCER content.

The Evidence Base editorial calendar

JCER works closely with partner website The Evidence Base [24], in particular via our Peek Behind the Paper interviews with JCER authors. The Evidence Base’s 2023 Editorial Calendar can be viewed on the site [25], and I encourage readers to get in touch if you are interested in contributing under one of this year’s themes.

Conclusion

Many thanks to all our Editorial Board members, authors and reviewers who work with us on JCER. I look forward to welcoming more readers to the journal now that all articles are open access, and hope the content continues to keep our readers up to date with the latest in CER, health economics and outcomes research, and real-world evidence.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

L Dormer is a co-founder and owner of Becaris Publishing Ltd. The author has no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Open access

This work is licensed under the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

References

Allan V, Ramagopalan SV, Mardekian J et al. Propensity score matching and inverse probability of treatment weighting to address confounding by indication in comparative effectiveness research of oral anticoagulants. J. Comp. Eff. Res. 9(9), 603–614 (2020).