Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute Funding Announcement: Addressing Disparities
Letter of Intent (LOI) Due Dates
Cycle 1: June 15, 2012
Cycle 2: October 15, 2012
Cycle 3: February 15, 2013
Every day, healthcare organizations and others are faced with the challenge of how to eliminate disparities in health and health care. After decades of attention to this issue, disparities remain pervasive, leading to preventable suffering and interfering with the ability of individuals and families to live full, healthy lives. We need information to guide decisions about how to eliminate these disparities and ensure that people receive care according to their needs—and that all have the opportunity to achieve the best possible outcomes, in accordance with their wishes.
We at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) are entrusted by the public to fund research that will matter to patients and their caregivers, and we now turn to you to help us. We have designed five national priorities and a research agenda for the projects we will fund that is focused on producing knowledge that is useful to patients, their caregivers, and clinicians. This knowledge is also expected to be useful to health system leaders, payers, and regulators who make decisions that impact patients. We have not specified the questions or the conditions. We believe that the important gaps in knowledge are pervasive and that, rather than dictate which conditions and questions are more important than others, we have chosen to seek wisdom from around the country in the form of applications for funding in the five priority areas. We also have identified some areas, such as rare conditions, and the needs of patients with multiple chronic conditions that are often neglected to be sure they are covered among our funded projects.
In this PCORI Funding Announcement (PFA), we want studies that will inform the choice of strategies to eliminate disparities. We are not interested in studies that describe disparities; instead, we want studies that will identify best options for eliminating disparities. We have not stated where the studies should be directed, but we have been very clear that they must focus on areas of importance to patients and their caregivers, where there are critical disparities that disadvantage members of a particular group and limit their ability to achieve optimal, patient-centered outcomes.
We are seeking to change how research is done by emphasizing the role of strong research teams that include varying perspectives. PCORI seeks to distinguish itself by supporting research in which patients, caregivers, and practicing clinicians are actively engaged in generating the research questions, conducting the research, and using the results of that research to truly understand and address patient needs. In the end, PCORI will be held accountable for whether this model succeeds in producing knowledge that patients need and use. We hope that you—patients, caregivers, clinicians, health plans, product manufacturers, policy makers, and researchers from around the country—will join us in producing an unprecedented portfolio of truly patient-centered outcomes research that will transform the ability of patients, their caregivers, and clinicians to seek, find, and use practical information in the decision-making process.
Funds Available
We anticipate that approximately 14 contracts totaling up to $12 million in total costs may be funded under this PFA in this initial funding cycle, assuming receipt of a sufficient number of high quality applications. PCORI anticipates additional funding cycles related to this announcement. However, funds available may vary, and PCORI reserves the right to modify or terminate this announcement at any time.
Budget and Project Periods Direct project costs are limited to a maximum of $500,000 per year.
Organizational Eligibility
Applications may be submitted by any private sector research organization, including non-profit and for-profit organizations, any public sector research organization, universities, colleges, hospitals, laboratories, healthcare systems, and units of state and local governments. All US applicant organizations must be recognized by the Internal Revenue Service. Foreign organizations and nondomestic components of organizations based in the United States may apply, as long as there is demonstrable benefit to the US healthcare system and US efforts in the area of patient-centered research can be clearly shown. Individuals may not apply. Foreign organizations should consult the PCORI Application Guidelines because there is an extra step for such organizations to register within the PCORI online system.
We seek comparative outcome studies that evaluate new and alternative interventions to reduce or eliminate disparities in health and health care outcomes, to overcome barriers that may disproportionately affect the outcomes of specific groups of patients, or to identify best practices for sharing results and information about patient-centered research across patient groups. The research must address critical gaps in knowledge. PCORI seeks studies that will provide information of value to patients, their caregivers, and clinicians.
Research Areas of Interest
We are interested in the following broad topical areas:
• Research that compares interventions to reduce or eliminate disparities in patient-centered outcomes, including health, health care, and patient-reported outcomes. For example, by accounting for possible differences at the patient, provider, or systems level, determine what interventions can be most effective for eliminating disparities in outcomes.
• Research that identifies and compares promising practices that address contextual factors such as socioeconomic, demographic, or community factors and their impact on patient-centered health outcomes.
• Research that compares benefits and risks of treatment, diagnostic, prevention, or service options across different patient populations, with attention to eliminating disparities.
• Research that compares strategies to overcome patient, provider, or systems level barriers (e.g., language, culture, transportation, homelessness, unemployment, lack of family/caregiver support) that may adversely affect patients and are relevant to their choices for preventive, diagnostic, and treatment strategies—as well as patient-centered outcomes.
• Research that compares and identifies best practices within various patient populations for information sharing about treatment outcomes and patient-centered research.
Strategies may focus on patient populations with a single condition or involve patients with a range of conditions. Strategies addressing care for patients with rare conditions are of interest. Rare diseases are defined as life-threatening or chronically debilitating diseases that are of such low prevalence in populations that special efforts, such as combining data across large populations, may be needed to address them. The term low prevalence is defined as meaning conditions that affect fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States or have a prevalence of less than 1 in 1,500 persons.
PCORI
1828 L St., NW, Suite 900
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: (202) 683-6690
Fax: (202) 683-6694
Email: info@pcori.org
