The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) board of governors approved $70 million for nine new patient-centered research projects focused on conditions ranging from diabetes to chronic lung disease and migraines.
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) is an independent, non-profit organization authorized by Congress in 2010 and its focus is to fund research that will provide patients, their caregivers and clinicians with the evidence-based information needed to make better-informed healthcare decisions.
With these latest awards, PCORI has now approved or awarded more than $1.2 billion in research funding.
Of the $70 million approved, $6.7 million will go to three of the Clinical Data Research Networks (CDRNs) that are members of PCORnet, PCORI’s initiative to develop a national patient-centered clinical research network. The awards will help the recipients study the impact of population-targeted health policies and interventions on risks, complications and disparities related to type II diabetes. Their projects will be part of the newly announced Natural Experiments Network, a joint effort of PCORI, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) of the National Institutes of Health. NEN study findings are meant to inform policy makers’, health plan directors’ and community leaders’ efforts to prioritize policies and other actions to prevent diabetes.
Five of the awards are the latest in PCORI's initiative to support “pragmatic clinical studies.” These studies aim to produce results that are more relevant to a broad range of patients and care settings and easier to adopt in routine practice. They are conducted in routine clinical settings, rather than in specialized research centers, and involve participants who more closely mirror typical patients.
The newly approved pragmatic studies will compare:
- Active surveillance versus traditional treatment options, such as surgery and radiation, for patients diagnosed with DCIS.
- The effectiveness of two medications – roflumilast and azithromycin – commonly used to treat patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
- The effectiveness of different approaches involving community health workers, tailored education, and other means to help adults with serious mental illness quit smoking.
- The effectiveness of daily use of an inhaled corticosteroid versus symptom-based use for reducing asthma exacerbations in African American and Hispanic adults with asthma.
- The effectiveness of two approaches to help people manage their chronic migraines and reduce the risk of medication overuse.
“We’re strongly committed to supporting large-scale projects that will provide patients and those who care for them with the useful, authoritative evidence they need to make the better-informed health and health care decisions,” PCORI Executive Director Joe Selby, M.D., said in a statement.
Each study will involve national advocacy organizations, major professional societies and associations, payers and other key patient and stakeholder groups, in their research design and implementation.
PCORI also approved $5.2 million for a study that addresses PCORI’s priority to fund research on improving healthcare systems. This study will determine whether encouraging text messages or working with diabetes wellness coaches is more effective at helping African Americans with uncontrolled diabetes manage their conditions.
In addition, the board authorized a supplemental $3.8 million in funding for the ADAPTABLE trial, a PCORnet study that aims to identify the optimal dose of aspirin to prevent heart attacks and strokes in patients with heart disease.
