More than a dozen research topics of interest approved for future PCORI funding opportunities

WASHINGTON, DC — More than a dozen topics ranging from healthy aging to prevention of drug addiction among adolescents and from telehealth to addressing bias, racism and discrimination throughout the health care continuum will be the focus of efforts to develop future research funding opportunities from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) following approval at today’s PCORI Board of Governors meeting.

With the Board’s approval, PCORI will continue working with input from patients and other health care decision makers to refine specific research questions for this sizable, timely group of topics and develop PCORI Funding Announcements (PFAs) through 2022. Proposed funding announcements targeting specific topics and questions will be subject to input and subsequent approval from PCORI’s Board.

The announcement of these new candidate topics follows Board approval in March of the development of funding announcements on specific topics of interest. PCORI is announcing research topics further in advance of issuing PFAs to provide more time for researchers working together with patients and communities focused on specific conditions and issues to consider development of patient-centered proposals. This approach also supports increased engagement and input into specific research questions from PCORI’s community of stakeholders.

“These topics, along with those prioritized for PFA development earlier this year, provide strategic direction for PCORI funding on key conditions and health issues,” said PCORI Executive Director Nakela L. Cook, MD, MPH. “These topics emerged from previous years of stakeholder input on priority evidence gaps and concerns with a focus on those that impose heavy burdens. They relate to themes emerging from PCORI’s strategic planning for its next phase optimizing alignment with the refresh of PCORI’s National Priorities and Research Agenda, which we anticipate announcing this autumn.” 

The first PFAs including calls for research proposals on the newly approved topics will be issued this fall. Topics that could be included are:

• Healthy aging: Optimizing physical and mental function across the aging continuum
• Osteoporotic fracture prevention
• Migraine prevention
• Addressing racism, discrimination and bias throughout the care continuum
• Leveraging telehealth for chronic disease management among vulnerable populations with complex needs

Topic areas that could be included in PFAs issued in 2022 include:

• Prevention of drug addiction for adolescents
• Early detection and treatment of delirium in older adults
• Leveraging telehealth for chronic disease management among vulnerable populations with complex needs
• Hypertension control
• Advancing health equity
• Visual impairment in older adults
• Suicide prevention: National crisis hotline
• Management of immune checkpoint inhibitor toxicity
• Abdominal aortic aneurysm screening in women
• Drug therapy for type 2 diabetes

Following Board approval in March, PCORI began developing PFAs on three topics, details of which are posted on PCORI’s website:

• Studying which strategies most effectively increase early detection of and timely care for postpartum complications among new mothers, particularly those experiencing disparities in care
• Understanding the comparative effectiveness of nonsurgical treatments for women experiencing urinary incontinence
• Assessing the comparative effectiveness of interventions that address mental health conditions in individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD)

In addition, in its latest response to the COVID-19 pandemic, PCORI issued a special expedited COVID-19 PFA focused on increasing vaccine confidence among workers in long-term care facilities. The application system to accept proposals opened today and required letters of intent are due May 4.

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