WASHINGTON, DC — Emphasizing interest in improving postpartum outcomes for women experiencing disparities in health care, nonsurgical options for women with urinary incontinence, and interventions targeting mental health conditions in people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) today began accepting proposals for research designed to help patients and those who care for them to make better-informed health care decisions.

PCORI is making up to $304 million in funding available for new comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) and studies to improve methods for conducting CER through six PCORI Funding Announcements (PFAs).

Two of these PFAs focus on topic areas—intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and maternal mortality—that reflect research priorities outlined in the legislation reauthorizing PCORI’s funding, signed into law in December 2019.

Through the first of these topic area announcements, PCORI seeks proposals for studies that will compare pharmacological, behavioral and nonpharmacological interventions or a combination of those interventions to manage mental health conditions in people with IDD. PCORI is making up to $40 million available to fund such studies.

Through the second topic area announcement, PCORI offers up to $50 million to fund CER on improving postpartum outcomes during the first six weeks following childbirth. These study proposals should focus on American Indian/Alaska Native, Black and Hispanic populations and those living in rural areas, who are more often underserved or experience greater disparities in health outcomes.

A third PFA offers up to $40 million to fund studies comparing nonsurgical approaches to urinary incontinence, a condition that affects 30 percent of older women. A PCORI-funded systematic review update showed there is good evidence to support the effectiveness of multiple nonsurgical interventions, but evidence gaps exist on comparative benefits and possible side effects.

A fourth PFA offers up to $90 million to fund new pragmatic clinical studies, which are large-scale CER studies that are conducted in typical health care settings rather than specialized research centers. They usually involve more diverse populations than typical clinical research and are intended to generate information that clinicians can more readily adopt in routine care. PCORI will accept proposals for studies on any topic, including IDD and maternal health. 

A fifth announcement seeks the research community’s best ideas for patient-centered CER studies that evaluate health care options and ways to deliver care. This PFA, offering up to $72 million, highlights IDD and maternal health as special areas of focus. The sixth PFA offers up to $12 million to fund studies designed to improve the methods for conducting patient-centered CER.

In addition to these research funding opportunities, PCORI also supports projects designed to promote awareness of findings from PCORI-funded research and to facilitate the uptake and use of research results in health care delivery.

Beginning today, PCORI is accepting applications for implementation projects that seek to make the peer-reviewed findings from specific, high-priority PCORI initiatives more actionable and accessible to health care decision makers. Topics identified for this announcement are nonsurgical options for urinary incontinence, use of narrow-spectrum antibiotics to treat acute respiratory infections in children and treatment approaches for posttraumatic stress disorder.

Through another implementation PFA, PCORI is seeking proposals for projects that aim to integrate effective shared decision making approaches in health care settings with the goal of helping patients work with their clinicians to make choices that are best for them.  

Details of all PCORI funding opportunities can be found on PCORI’s website. To date, PCORI has invested $2.9 billion to fund patient-centered CER and to support other projects designed to enhance CER methods and the infrastructure necessary to conduct CER rigorously and efficiently.

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About PCORI

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) is an independent nonprofit 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 healthcare decisions. PCORI is committed to continually seeking input from a broad range of stakeholders to guide its work.