Given the growing health care costs and efforts to contain such costs, an important area of research is on cost-effectiveness, particularly the cost effectiveness of novel and often more expensive therapies. Only with understanding the benefits of such approaches can a rationale selection of treatment be made.

Disparities research is a focus of multiple CPRM researchers. One area of research is in differences in patient care and treatment outcomes based on race and socioeconomic status. Our group recently received funding from the Department of Defense to study the role of active surveillance in African-American men with prostate cancer. Another interesting area of disparities research is focused on health care providers not patients. Our group has highlighted differences in industry payments to physicians based on gender and how men and women are treated differently in the residency match process.

Multiple CPRM faculty have considerable expertise in analyzing patient outcomes in large volume datasets with upwards of hundreds of thousands of patients. Such analyses can help answer important clinical questions, many of which may never to feasible to be addressed in a prospective clinical trial.

Advanced radiotherapy approaches provide the ability to deliver treatment with increased levels of normal tissue sparing. However, some or all of a particular normal tissue may still be included in the treatment. It is crucial to understand how normal tissues respond to different levels of radiation in order to optimize their sparing during the treatment planning process. Several RMAS faculty are experts in normal tissue complication modeling and have studied a wide range of normal tissues.

Big Data can also provide insight into physician behavior surrounding compensation. Our group has performed several novel analyses of national provider databases focused on physician compensation and conflicts of interests.