PCORI Awards $37 Million To Accelerate Implementation of Evidence-Based Health Research

Twenty-five U.S. health systems to implement Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)-funded CER results on either antibiotic use or weight loss treatment. TrialSite supports PCORI grants as they are designed to bridge the gap between real world care and research, expediting advancements in care. PCORI was established in 2010, as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

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. PCORI sent the updates for TrialSite News distribution.

The Deal

• 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.

Nakela L. Cook, M.D., MPH, Executive Director reports, “PCORI’s Health Systems Implementation Initiative innovatively bridges the gap between research and practice.” Cook continued, “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

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.

The Challenge

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% to more than 40% 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.”

Awardees for the antibiotic prescribing projects include:

• AdventHealth
• Ascension Health
• Atrium Health 
• Children's Healthcare of Atlanta
• Cincinnati Hospital Children’s Medical Center
• Duke University Health System
• Geisinger Clinic
• Intermountain Health
• Montefiore Health System
• Phoenix Children's Hospital
• Stanford Medicine
• Temple University Health System
• The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
• The University of Chicago Medicine
• University Hospitals Health System
• University of Florida Health System
• Valleywise Health
• Vanderbilt University Medical Center
• WellSpan Health

Awardees for the weight loss treatment projects include:

• Cleveland Clinic
• Jefferson Health
• Kaiser Permanente Southern California
• Mercy Health
• Northwestern Memorial HealthCare
• UW Health (University of Wisconsin)

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.

What is 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.

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