The relentless increase in healthcare costs and the global economic crisis require us to rethink the way research is done. The heterogeneity of patients is a major challenge in designing and coordinating high-quality studies about sepsis. Studies on new treatments and devices, such as polymyxin B hemoperfusion, must be optimized not only for potential benefits for a specific population (i.e. efficacy), but also for their eventual implementation in real-world situations (i.e. effectiveness) and for economic costs (i.e. efficiency). In this regard, theragnosis and newer statistical tools could help us obtain useful information from real-life observational data. In this review, we discuss the basic components required for sustainable research in polymyxin B hemoperfusion.
© 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel.