Improving Methods for Conducting PCOR

Improving Methods for Conducting Patient Centered Outcomes Research 

In this PCORI Funding Announcement (PFA), we seek to fund projects to address gaps in methodological research relevant to conducting patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR). The improvement of existing methods will benefit all stakeholders, including researchers planning investigations; policy makers weighing the value of healthcare interventions; and patients, clinicians, and caregivers facing healthcare decisions.

Letter of Intent due February 14th 

More information here. 

Health Economics and Policy Pilot Program

Center for Health Economics and Policy (CHEP) Pilot Program

Awards will be made for up to $30,000 direct costs for 1 year to facilitate the planning of a new health economics and/or policy research project. Pilot grants are used to fund developmental or early stage work, including pilot data and preparation for submission of a grant proposal or peer-reviewed publication.

Letter of intent due February 28th. 

Research Themes: Types of Studies Supported

This program is designed to support a broad range of health economics and policy studies including, but not limited to, the following themes and examples:

·         Implications of Change in Existing Programs or Guidelines Established by Federal/State Policies.  Identify strategies to most effectively, equitably, and efficiently modify existing health policies or develop new policies or provide improved health outcomes.

·         Improve Methods for Health Economics and Policy Research: Development and/or use of applicable datasets, measures, and analyses to measure outcomes of policy change or the development of new policy parameters. 

·         Improving Health Care Affordability, Efficiency, and Cost Transparency: Including topic areas of reducing cost growth, comparing performance of systems and providers, analyzing incentives interventions aimed at improving performance.

·         Increasing Accessibility to Health Care: Including improving access to providers, decreasing disparities in health care access, improving access to health insurance, and the effects of the ACA on access.

·         Identify Core Criteria for Successful Public Health Policies: Evaluate contextual and environmental factors that influence the success of public health policies.

·         Understand Resources or Costs for Implementation or Non-implementation of New or Modified Health Policies: Evaluate changes in existing or potential policies for providers, systems or communities.

·         Analyze Policy Development to Determine Cost-Effectiveness of the Intervention.

Find more information here.  

Looking for funding? Opportunities from the CDC and NIH

NIH Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory - Demonstration Projects for Pragmatic Clinical Trials (UG3/UH3)

               Posted: Nov 23. 1016

               Open: May 2, 2017

               Closed: June 2, 2017

               Agency Name: NIH 

Description: “The purpose of this FOA is to solicit applications to support Demonstration Projects that include an efficient, large-scale pragmatic clinical trial. Trials must be conducted across two or more health care systems (HCS) and must be conducted as part of the NIH HCS Research Collaboratory supported through the NIH Common Fund. (See https://commonfund.nih.gov/hcscollaboratory). Awards made through this FOA will initially support a one-year milestone-driven planning phase (UG3), with possible rapid transition to the second implementation phase (UH3) for a pragmatic trial Demonstration Project. UH3s will be awarded after administrative review of eligible UG3s that have met the scientific milestone and feasibility requirements necessary for the UH3 implementation phase, depending on the availability of funds. The UG3/UH3 application must be submitted as a single application, and applicants should note specific instructions for each phase in this FOA.

The overall goal of the NIH HCS Research Collaboratory program is to strengthen the national capacity to implement cost-effective, large-scale research studies that engage health care delivery organizations as research partners. The NIH HCS Research Collaboratory Program has established a Collaboratory Coordinating Center (CCC) that is providing national leadership and technical expertise in all aspects of research with HCS.  After awards are made by NIH, the CCC (https://www.nihcollaboratory.org/Pages/default.aspx) and the NIH will work with successful awardees from this FOA to facilitate the planning and rapid execution of high impact Demonstration Projects that conduct research studies in partnerships with health care delivery systems, ultimately making available data, tools and resources from Collaboratory research projects to develop a broadened base of research partnerships with HCS.”

More information HERE 

Community Characteristics Associated with Geographic Disparities in Diabetes and Cardiometabolic Health

                Posted: Dec 10, 2016

                Closed: Feb 14, 2017

                Agency Name: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-ERA

Description: “This FOA has two components, A and B. Component A supports applications aimed at examination of county-level disparities in type 2 diabetes and cardiometabolic conditions to enhance understanding of disease determinants. Applicants will test hypotheses aimed at clarifying the contribution of environmental or socioeconomic circumstances to diabetes geographic disparities. As part of this initiative, Component A awardees will also be asked to form a common protocol and data management plan for the collection of a core set of exposure and outcome variables to permit multi-center analyses. Component B of this FOA solicits applications for a study Coordinating Center (CC) to provide logistics, data management, and analysis support to the multi-center research study.It is anticipated that 5 awards (4 for Component A and 1 for component B) will be made under this FOA. An institution (normally identified by having a unique DUNS number) may submit no more than one application for Component A and no more than one for component B. However, no institution will receive more than one award under this funding announcement; an awardee for Component B will not also receive an award for Component A.”

More information HERE 

 

Natural Experiments of Policy and Built Environment Impact on Diabetes Risk

                Posted: Dec 7, 2016

                Closed: Feb 13, 2017

                Agency Name: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – ERA

Description: “This FOA has two components, A and B. Component A: To support a 5-year multi-center research network of innovative, non-health system-based, natural experiments approaches to alter the diabetogenic characteristics of US communities. Priority areas include population-level approaches to the promotion of healthy eating and active living by evaluating the impact of environmental and policy interventions on population-level risk factors for diabetes. Component B: To fund a Central Coordinating Center (CCC) to provide organizational, logistic and communication support to enhance the efficiency, productivity, and impact of the Natural Experiments research centers that are funded as part of Component A.”

More information HERE

Rural Policy Analysis Program (HRSA)

Additional Information:
http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=285998

Description:
Eligible applicants include domestic public or private, non-profit or for-profit organizations. Eligible organizations may include State, local, and Indian tribal governments; institutions of higher education; other non-profit organizations (including faith-based, community-based, and tribal organizations); and hospitals. Eligible applicants must be national in scope and have well- established relationships with each of the following constituencies: rural clinical service networks; frontier residents; rural hospitals and community health systems; rural medical and health care provider educators; rural health clinics; State Rural Health Associations (SRHA) and State Offices of Rural Health (SORHs). You must have experience identifying emerging rural health care policy issues and promptly providing feedback to office inquiries regarding those issues.  Eligible applicants must demonstrate experience conducting policy research in the areas of access to health care services, Medicare and Medicaid policies, and development of rural delivery systems and public health. You should also have the capacity to quickly synthesize and disseminate policy analysis that informs policy makers of the needs of rural health care delivery systems in the design and implementation of health care policy.  Finally, you must demonstrate past experience in, and the ability to communicate results and implications of national health policy analyses for rural health services and delivery to a variety of audiences in a number of settings, including meeting presentations and panel discussions.  Applications that fail to show such experience will not be considered. 

Strategies to Increase Delivery of Guideline-Based Care to Populations with Health Disparities (R01)

Additional Information:
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-15-279.html

Description:
This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites applications to conduct innovative and feasible studies to test strategies to accelerate the adoption of guideline-based recommendations into clinical practice among populations with health disparities.  Applications that propose strategies with a focus on providers who care for clinical populations with excess burden of cardiovascular, lung, blood, and sleep diseases and disorders, in concert with the health care delivery systems in which they practice, are strongly encouraged. Applications that test systems, infrastructures, and strategies to implement guideline-based care for NHLBI disorders in clinical care settings are also of high programmatic interest.

Training Institute for Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health

Additional Information:
http://www.scgcorp.com/tidirh2016/application.html

Description:
This training is designed for investigators at any career stage interested in conducting D&I research. To be eligible, participants must NOT have current R18, R01, or R01-equivalent funding as a principal investigator for D&I research and may not have received such funding in the past 5 years. Note: Investigators who have received an R01 or equivalent are eligible, as long as the funding was not specifically for D&I research. Preference will be given to applicants who demonstrate experience with—or potential for—working effectively in transdisciplinary teams and who have strong partnerships with—or are embedded within—health care delivery, public health, or community-based networks. We seek a balance of both junior and senior investigators, with the overall goal of bringing new people into the field of D&I research. While we anticipate most participants will be early- to mid-career individuals, we will enroll a limited number of senior researchers who are making the switch to D&I research. 

Development of the Gabriella Miller Kids First Pediatric Data Resource Center (U2C)

Additional Information:
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-RM-16-010.html

Description:
The objective of this FOA is to support the development of the Data Resource Center for the Gabriella Miller Kids First Pediatric Research Program (Kids First), which consists of the following components: a web-based Data Resource Portal, a Data Coordination Center, and Administrative and Outreach Core.  The goal of the Data Resource Portal is to accelerate discovery of genetic etiology and shared biologic pathways within and across childhood cancers and structural birth defects by facilitating access to and querying of annotated genomic sequence and phenotypic data from cohorts of patients with these conditions.  The Data Resource Portal will serve as an indispensable research resource where genomic data can be aggregated, accessed, analyzed, and shared within and across the childhood cancer and birth defects research communities as well as the broader scientific community.  The Data Coordination Center will work with Kids First investigators and sequencing centers to facilitate data collection and harmonization.  The Administrative and Outreach Core will oversee administrative activities, work closely with a Steering Committee, and provide outreach and education to the research community on using the Data Resource Portal.