PCORI to Fund $120M in Comparative Effectiveness Research in 2012

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) has released its first primary research funding announcements to support comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) that will give patients and those who care for them the ability to make better-informed health care decisions.

PCORI will award $120 million this year for innovative projects that effectively incorporate patients and stakeholders in research teams and address the areas of focus of PCORI’s National Priorities for Research and Research Agenda. PCORI previously announced the approval of 50 Pilot Project Program awards, totaling $30 million over two years, to researchers in 24 states and the District of Columbia.

“Our funding announcements reflect PCORI’s commitment to a patient-centered research agenda, emphasizing the inclusion of patients and caregivers at all stages of the research,” said Joe Selby, M.D., M.P.H., executive director of PCORI.

The PCORI Funding Announcements (PFAs) make clear that successful applicants must have research teams with patients, caregivers and practicing clinicians actively engaged throughout the process, from generating research questions to conducting research and using the results to understand and address patient needs. This requirement helps ensure that the research remains true to the interests of the patient populations that will be affected by it.

In addition to requiring meaningful patient and caregiver involvement, PCORI will require applicants to include a dissemination and implementation assessment, which describes the potential facilitators and barriers to diffusion and implementation of study findings (if findings warrant dissemination). Funding decisions also will support policies that promote transparency, replication and reproducibility in research. PCORI will require the sharing of study documentation, so researchers may replicate findings in other populations. For large studies, PCORI will require that applicants propose a plan for sharing of de-identified data, so results may be reproduced by others in the same dataset.

Four funding announcements, involving up to $96 million in funding, were released May 22. They correspond to the first four areas of focus outlined in PCORI’s National Priorities for Research and Research Agenda. A fifth PFA on Accelerating Patient-Centered and Methodological Research, involving up to $24 million in funding, will be issued during the summer. All application materials can be downloaded from the “Funding Opportunities” section of PCORI’s website, www.pcori.org.

PCORI is an independent, non-profit organization created 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.