Comparative effectiveness research, long an area of debate among academics and policy wonks, is suddenly racing toward primetime. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has just named a 15-member to a panel that will advise the government on how to spend the $1.1 billion in federal stimulus funding the Obama administration has set aside for comparing the effectiveness of medical treatments. We spoke to Tony Coelho, chairman of the Partnership to Improve Patient Care, a coalition of physicians, patient,  and industry groups focused on the issue, about the role of comparative effectiveness research, concerns about its use as a blunt tool to cut spending at the expense of patient access to new drugs, and the political fight ahead.