BioCentury
ARTICLE | Company News

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) inflammation, other

June 24, 2013 7:00 AM UTC

PCORI will invest up to $17 million to research disparities in controlling asthma in minority populations - one of five topics that the institute has designated as "high-impact" and will provide funding to address. Specifically, funding will support four to eight awards to conduct patient-focused research to reduce poor health and other complications related to uncontrolled asthma in target groups, including African-American and Hispanic/Latino populations. PCORI is also looking for proposals to examine outcomes of importance to patients and families, including quality of life (QOL) measures. Letters of intent are due Aug. 1, and applications are due Sept. 18; awards are expected to be announced in December.

PCORI also announced late last week that it agreed to partner with NIH's National Institute on Aging to fund a major intervention study to prevent injuries caused by falls in elderly - another high-impact topic in the series. PCORI said it plans to commit up to $30 million to the project. Additionally, PCORI's board of governors approved the development of an initiative in collaboration with AHRQ to fund research on treating uterine fibroids, a third high-impact research topic. The target budget for this topic is a single $20 million award. A targeted funding announcement for the aging topic is expected to be finalized in July; a uterine fibroids project is slated to begin early next year. The two remaining high-impact topics under PCORI's initial series are treating obesity in diverse populations and treating back pain. ...