PCORI To Support Patient-Centered CER Studies

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) has approved $97.3 million in new funding for 53 comparative effectiveness research (CER) studies aimed at providing patients and healthcare stakeholders with more information about the effectiveness of various healthcare options. PCORI also approved $93.5 million to build and expand the individual research data networks that will form PCORnet, a new national patient-centered clinical research network to facilitate CER.
 
Studies will include treatments for heart disease, cancer, obesity, chronic pain, diabetes, respiratory disorders, and mental health disorders. Several projects will explore patient and caregiver decision-making, health disparities, and healthcare delivery systems.
 
Eight of the CER studies will fund strategies to reduce persistent disparities in uncontrolled asthma among African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos. PCORI specifically called for proposals on this topic because “not all treatment options work for all populations and asthma has many triggers including environmental and social factors not always addressed by medical providers.” PCORI selected the other 45 CER studies for funding from a total of 461 submissions. These and the asthma awards will go to 65 institutions in 23 states as well as Washington, DC, and Quebec.
 
“We are very pleased to add this latest round of projects to our growing portfolio of patient-centered comparative effectiveness research, which will contribute much-needed insights about the benefits and risks of a range of medical interventions and approaches to healthcare delivery,” said PCORI executive director Joe Selby, MD, MPH. “Each project will engage patients and other stakeholders in meaningful ways with researchers to tackle critical health problems. We look forward to following and learning from the studies’ progress.”