PCORI Offers $90 Million in Second Call for Large Pragmatic Study Proposals

WASHINGTON, May 19, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) issued a funding announcement today offering up to $90 million to support up to nine large comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) studies that will address critical choices faced by patients and the caregivers, healthcare providers, and systems that care for them.

The PCORI Funding Announcement (PFA) for Large Pragmatic Studies to Evaluate Patient-Centered Outcomes is the second in PCORI's Pragmatic Clinical Studies Initiative. The initiative's aim is to support large patient-centered studies that have potential to fill information gaps on health problems that place heavy burdens on patients, families, and the healthcare system and to produce evidence that is generally applicable to a wide spectrum of patients' needs and clinical care settings.

"The ambitious goal of our Large Pragmatic Studies Initiative is to establish a portfolio of game-changing studies that will significantly improve our understanding of clinical decisions made every day by patients and those who care for them," said PCORI Executive Director Joe Selby, MD, MPH. "The research and stakeholder communities responded enthusiastically to our first call for such proposals issued last February and we're looking forward to a similarly robust response this time."

Unlike traditional randomized controlled trials, large pragmatic studies tend to involve patients and healthcare interactions in typical hospital and clinical practice settings, rather than specialized research settings. They typically include a greater diversity of patients, including those with multiple health problems. These studies also tend to better reflect actual care situations, making the results more applicable to patients' and healthcare providers' experiences.

PCORI will provide up to $10 million in direct costs for each individual study selected for funding. Projects are projected to last up to five years.

With this second funding announcement, PCORI has committed up to $180 million so far in support for high-impact, patient-centered CER though this initiative. Through these and other funding opportunities, PCORI is providing roughly $1 billion in research commitments from 2014 through 2015.

As in the first announcement, PCORI has identified several research topics of priority interest, including critical questions identified by PCORI's multi-stakeholder advisory panels, the Institute of Medicine, the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, and stakeholder organizations such as payers and purchasers of health care. The new announcement includes four new specific, high-impact topics recommended by PCORI's advisory panels that address dialysis for patients with end-stage renal disease, treatment of Crohn's disease, prevention and cessation of tobacco use, and management of mental illness.

Interested applicants must submit Letters of Intent (LOIs) by no later than 5 p.m. ET Friday, June 27. LOIs are competitive; they will be reviewed for their responsiveness and fit to program goals and those invited to submit full applications will be notified by Thursday, July 31. Details can be found in the Funding Center on PCORI's website.

About PCORI
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) is an independent, non-profit organization authorized by Congress in 2010. Its mission is to fund research that will provide patients, their caregivers and clinicians with the evidence-based information needed to make better-informed health care decisions. PCORI is committed to continuously seeking input from a broad range of stakeholders to guide its work. More information is available at www.pcori.org.

SOURCE Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)