PCORI approves USD 225M for health research studies

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) today announced the approval of funding awards totaling $225 million, which include $207 million to support 20 new patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) studies. By comparing various approaches to care, these studies will help fill evidence gaps related to maternal illness and death, adolescent mental health, delirium in older adults, cardiovascular disease and a range of other high-burden health conditions.

Four awards include support for large patient-centered CER studies in which community organizations and research institutions as coequal partners will tackle clinical and social factors that contribute to inequities in maternal morbidity and mortality.

“Evidence generated by PCORI-funded studies provides patients, clinicians and other health care decision makers trustworthy information to help them evaluate their options and make informed decisions, improving health and health care for people across the nation,” said PCORI Executive Director Nakela L. Cook, M.D., MPH. “These latest awards demonstrate PCORI’s ongoing commitment to funding important research addressing evidence gaps on key health issues, including the persistent and worsening crisis of maternal morbidity and mortality and the related alarming disparities.”

This latest round of PCORI funding awards also includes CER studies researching questions about how to optimally use brief interventions to prevent alcohol use among adolescents; ways to prevent delirium among hospitalized patients, a particular concern for older adults and their families; strategies to achieve better blood pressure control; and ways to enhance use of cancer screening and treatment of depression.

Several studies specifically aim to address questions about how to optimize use of therapies and care delivery approaches to achieve greater equity in care access and outcomes among historically underserved populations. Several will evaluate optimal approaches for use of telehealth, such as apps and remote care via video.

Recognizing that generating evidence is not the end of the process of improving outcomes, PCORI supports projects designed to assess and expand ways to promote the uptake of PCORI-funded CER findings in clinical practice. To that end, PCORI approved around $10 million for four implementation projects.

One focuses on enhancing shared decision making related to colorectal cancer screening among older adults and a second on shared decision making related to anesthesia options for patients undergoing hip fracture surgery. The third and fourth projects aim to accelerate the adoption of evidence-based approaches, one focused on treating PTSD and the other on monitoring cancer symptoms during outpatient treatment.

To further enhance the rigor and quality of patient-centered CER, PCORI also approved $4 million to fund four studies to improve methods for conducting CER and nearly $3 million for two studies that will strengthen the evidence base on engaging patients and other health care decision makers in designing and conducting CER.

“It takes rigorously designed and conducted research using evidence-based approaches to generate reliable results, which is why PCORI invests in studies focused on methodology and the science of engagement,” said Harv Feldman, M.D., MSCE, PCORI’s Deputy Executive Director for Patient-Centered Research Programs. “PCORI also recognizes the need for comparative clinical effectiveness research findings to reach those whom they can help the most, which is why the organization funds projects to proactively disseminate and implement useful evidence, so it can be adopted faster in every day clinical care.”

Details of all the newly funded studies and projects are available on PCORI’s website. All funding awards were approved pending a business and programmatic review by PCORI staff and the issuance of formal award contracts. With these latest awards, PCORI has invested more than $4.5 billion to fund patient-centered CER and support other projects.
MB Bureau