PCORI awards $37 million to accelerate implementation of evidence-based health research

Twenty-five U.S. health systems to implement PCORI-funded CER results on either antibiotic use or weight loss treatment

2024-10-02

(Press-News.org) WASHINGTON, D.C., Oct. 2, 2024 — The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) today announced $37 million in funding awards through its Health Systems Implementation Initiative (HSII). These awards will support 25 projects implementing PCORI-funded comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) findings in participating HSII health systems.

Key Points:

Twenty-five HSII participant health systems, covering more than 2,300 care sites across the country, received PCORI funding awards. HSII implementation projects will focus on one of two main areas: Improving antibiotic prescribing practices for treating children with acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs) in outpatient settings. Implementing effective intensive lifestyle treatment programs for weight loss into primary care settings. Potential impact on care for 1.5 million children seen for ARTIs and more than 50,000 adults completing a weight loss program. HSII is part of PCORI's commitment to reduce the often-cited 17-year gap between research publication and clinical adoption. First implementation project awards under the multiyear HSII, which PCORI launched in 2023.

“PCORI’s Health Systems Implementation Initiative innovatively bridges the gap between research and practice,” said PCORI Executive Director Nakela L. Cook, M.D., MPH. “By funding projects like these, we are proactively supporting the uptake of evidence from PCORI-funded patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research in clinical settings. This initiative enables clinicians and health systems to not only access but also effectively scale implementation of patient-centered evidence, to improve care delivery and patient outcomes."

Project Focus:

Antibiotic Prescribing (19 projects): Improving antibiotic prescribing by implementing findings from a large PCORI-funded CER study demonstrating that narrow-spectrum antibiotics were as effective as broad-spectrum antibiotics in treating acute respiratory tract infections among children, with fewer side effects. Weight Loss Treatment (6 projects): Implementing intensive lifestyle treatment programs for weight loss within primary care settings, based on two PCORI-funded CER studies. These studies produced evidence in favor of two clinical interventions, a health coaching program and a clinic-based group visits program.

The growing number of drug-resistant infections and rising obesity rates in adults are two healthcare challenges addressed through PCORI's inaugural HSII implementation projects.

Antibiotics are commonly prescribed for children. Selecting the right antibiotic at the right time can help prevent the problem of drug-resistant infections. Specifically, choosing narrow-spectrum antibiotics that target specific bacteria, instead of broad-spectrum antibiotics, can help prevent the expansion of hard-to-treat resistant bacterial strains. Hospitals have made great strides in antibiotic stewardship efforts. With most antibiotics prescribed in clinics and doctor’s offices, there is now an opportunity to improve prescribing in the outpatient setting.

Meanwhile, U.S. adult obesity rates have climbed from 30 percent to more than 40 percent in the past two decades, increasing risks of diabetes, heart disease and premature death. Although the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and other groups have identified intensive lifestyle treatment as an effective way to treat obesity, clinicians face challenges in delivering this care, such as lack of time and resources. The intensive lifestyle treatment programs evaluated in PCORI-funded research offer more flexible approaches to delivering these programs in primary care settings, helping to address these barriers.

“It takes an intentional, dedicated effort to change clinical practice on the basis of new evidence, which is why PCORI is committed to promoting the dissemination and adoption of patient-centered CER results in healthcare settings,” said PCORI Deputy Executive Director for Patient-Centered Research Programs Harv Feldman, M.D., MSCE. “These HSII implementation projects will use implementation practices that will be able to be leveraged nationwide, leading to lasting improvements in patient care across U.S. health systems.”

Details of the newly funded projects are available on PCORI's website. All award funding has been approved pending final PCORI contractual considerations. Since 2010, PCORI has awarded more than $4.5 billion to fund patient-centered CER and research-related projects.

PCORI will announce a second round of HSII implementation awards in the spring of 2025.



Follow @PCORI on Twitter or find us on LinkedIn. #patientcenteredcare #clinicalresearch

About PCORI

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) is the nation’s leading funder of patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER). By comparing two or more health or healthcare approaches, CER generates evidence that helps people make better-informed decisions and improves healthcare delivery and outcomes. PCORI takes a holistic approach to its work, ensuring that patients and other health decision makers are engaged as partners throughout the research process, supporting dissemination and implementation of results in practice and strengthening clinical research infrastructure to advance patient-centered CER. PCORI is an independent, non-profit organization authorized by Congress. Visit pcori.org.

Media Contact

Sofia Kosmetatos

skosmetatos@pcori.org

202-738-3335

END

[Attachments] See images for this press release:

PCORI awards $37 million to accelerate implementation of evidence-based health research 2

PCORI awards $37 million to accelerate implementation of evidence-based health research 3

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Researchers develop insights into KRAS mutations in pancreatic cancers

2024-10-02

A common mutation in the KRAS gene is associated with improved overall survival in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) compared with other variants, in part because the mutation appears to lead to less invasiveness and weaker biological activity, according to a multicenter study conducted at Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and other institutions. The research, published August 29 in Cancer Cell, demonstrates that KRAS mutations, which occur in about 95 percent of people who ...

New CAMH-led study highlights effective treatment for male postpartum depression

2024-10-02

(Toronto, Canada) – A new study from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), in collaboration with leading researchers in Pakistan, has demonstrated the effectiveness of an integrated psychosocial intervention aimed at improving parenting skills and symptoms of depression. The treatment was effective for male postpartum depression (PPD) in a cohort of Pakistani fathers, improving both paternal mental health and child development outcomes. “Male mental health, and especially postpartum depression in fathers, remains a stigmatized and understudied area,” says Dr. Ishrat Husain, the study's lead investigator and senior ...

Global study highlights the life-saving impact of Guideline-Directed Medical Therapy (GDMT) in heart failure patients

2024-10-02

Heart failure is a rapidly growing public health issue that can be difficult to manage on a global scale. But there are tools that exist that can improve outcomes, such as guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT). New UCLA-led research highlights the important role that these guidelines can play in reducing mortality rates for individuals suffering from heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), a type of heart failure affecting an estimated 29 million people worldwide. “These guidelines are being significantly underutilized in clinical settings globally and there ...

New method quantifies single-cell data’s risk of private information leakage

2024-10-02

Access to publicly available human single-cell gene expression datasets, or scRNA-seq datasets, has significantly enhanced researchers’ understanding of both complex biological systems and the etymology of various diseases. However, the increase in accessibility raises a greater concern about the privacy of the individuals who donated the cells and the likelihood of their private health details being shared without consent. Previous studies on these privacy breaches have focused on bulk gene expression data sharing, where the average expression levels of genes are measured across a large population of cells from a tissue or sample rather than an individual cell. Because single-cell ...

Eyes on the fries: how our vision creates a food trend

2024-10-02

KEY POINTS Human judgement of food images is influenced by judgements that precede it Experiment tested reactions of more than 600 people making food choices Highly relevant given widespread use of Uber Eats or phone-based menus Finding could assist treatments for eating disorders or assist with food marketing Research at the University of Sydney has revealed that we don’t judge food simply on its merits but are influenced by what we have seen beforehand, a cascading phenomenon known as ‘serial dependence’. The research, published today in the high-impact journal Current Biology, was conducted by Professors David Alais ...

UVM scientist maps fruit fly brain

2024-10-02

A team of scientists supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s The BRAIN Initiative®, including Davi Bock, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Neurological Sciences at UVM’s Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine, recently made a substantial advancement in neurobiological research by successfully mapping the entire brain of Drosophila melanogaster, more commonly known as the fruit fly. The study, titled “Whole-brain annotation and multi-connectome cell typing of Drosophila,” recently published ...

Bridging the gap: how pragmatic trials can better serve healthcare systems

2024-10-02

Boston, MA – A new thought piece led by the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute with collaborators from Duke University and Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute highlights the challenges facing healthcare researchers and decision makers in the quest to improve population health in a constantly evolving healthcare landscape. The authors offer strategies to enhance the effectiveness of pragmatic clinical trials and increase their impact on real-world healthcare settings. The Viewpoint appears October 2 in JAMA. Pragmatic clinical trials, designed to inform health ...

UChicago scientists decode key mutation in many cancers

2024-10-02

Inside every cell, inside every nucleus, your continued existence depends on an incredibly complicated dance. Proteins are constantly wrapping and unwrapping DNA, and even minor missteps can lead to cancer. A new study from the University of Chicago reveals a previously unknown part of this dance—one with significant implications for human health. In the study, published Oct. 2 in Nature, a team of scientists led by UChicago Prof. Chuan He, in collaboration with University of Texas Health Science Center at ...

NYU Langone awarded $1.6 million to investigate Alzheimer’s & Parkinson’s progression through the eye

2024-10-02

Researchers at NYU Langone Health were awarded $1.6 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate changes in the eye that may indicate early signs of Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. The award, OT2OD038130, recognizes the eye as a part of the brain and its role as a window into cognitive and visual health. After the initial $1.6 million award, the grant may renew an additional two years, for a total of $4.8 million as part of the NIH Common Fund Venture Program’s new Oculomics Initiative. Oculomics is a relatively new term to describe the integrative use of technology and ...

Missing link found in gamma emission phenomena from thunderclouds

2024-10-02

Groundbreaking Discoveries in Gamma-Ray Emissions from Thunderstorms In the recent edition of Nature, groundbreaking results about the gamma-ray emissions produced during thunderstorms are presented. Overall, these findings reveal that gamma-ray emission from thunderclouds is much more complex, diverse, and dynamic than previously thought. Understanding these phenomena is crucial to uncovering the secrets of lightning. Flickering Gamma-Ray Flashes: A New Discovery Entitled “Flickering Gamma-Ray Flashes, the Missing Link between Gamma Glows and TGFs,” the paper by Østgaard et al. [2024] reports unique observations of a new phenomenon called Flickering Gamma-Ray ...

PCORI awards $37 million to accelerate implementation of evidence-based health research

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: