Vanderbilt University Medical Center has received four new awards totaling $26.4 million from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), an independent, nonprofit organization that funds comparative effectiveness research to improve individual and population health.
“PCORI is the leading funder of patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research,” said Russell Rothman, MD, MPP, VUMC Senior Vice President for Population and Public Health. “We are delighted to have these awards to continue our research efforts to identify optimal approaches to improving health care and health outcomes for patients, families and the community.”
Rothman, Ingram Professor of Integrative and Population Health and director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Medicine and Public Health, is principal investigator of one of the awards, a $13.5 million, four-year renewal of the VUMC-based Stakeholders, Technology and Research Clinical Research Network (STAR CRN).
Since 2014, STAR CRN has supported more than 100 funded studies to improve health outcomes among patients with obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, COVID-19, vasculitis and other conditions.
Jonathan Casey, MD, MSCI, assistant professor of Medicine, is PI of a $7 million, five-year award to determine, in critically ill patients, which breathing tube size will hasten recovery without causing long-term problems, including shortness of breath and damage to the voice box.
Lyndsay Nelson, PhD, and Lindsay Mayberry, MS, PhD, are the PIs of a Science of Engagement award focused on developing and evaluating methods of engagement in research.
“Engaging patients and the public in clinical research can help make research more patient-centered, relevant and useful,” said Nelson, research associate professor of Medicine. “What’s needed is more information about how best to engage people so that they understand the value they bring to research.”
One innovative approach is to use “agile” methods that harness the power of small teams to consider multiple perspectives, foster teamwork and solve problems collaboratively and efficiently. The Science of Engagement award will provide $1.9 million over three years to test the effect of agile methods on overall engagement and research outcomes.
Engagement also is at the heart of PCORnet, the national research network funded by PCORI that includes STAR CRN and seven other clinical research networks across the country.
The fourth new PCORI award will provide $4 million over four years to establish the PCORnet Engagement and Public Awareness Services Coordinating Center.
The center will support engagement activities across PCORnet, enhance its visibility and build community awareness, reduce barriers to engagement, increase awareness about the national network, and return study results to participants and the public.
“We will facilitate a culture of patient-centeredness throughout each level of PCORnet, through each participating network and at all stages of research projects,” said Mayberry, associate professor of Medicine and co-director of the VUMC Center for Health Behavior and Health Education.
Also leading the coordinating center will be co-PIs Cheslie Johnson, a patient partner, and Schuyler Jones, MD, of the Duke Clinical Research Institute. “Through our partnership with Duke Clinical Research Institute,” Mayberry said, “public awareness efforts will enhance visibility of the network and its unique capabilities in supporting research.”
Rothman, one of PCORnet’s founding partners, has led STAR CRN since its inception.
Encompassing 10 health care systems, scores of academic and community hospitals, and hundreds of outpatient practices and community stakeholders, STAR CRN supports comparative effectiveness studies, pragmatic clinical trials, health system innovation, and other patient-centered research aimed at improving health care delivery and health outcomes.
In addition to VUMC, the network includes Duke University School of Medicine, Essentia Health, Mayo Clinic, Medical University of South Carolina, Meharry Medical College, Stanford University School of Medicine, University of North Carolina Health Care, Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Advocate Health, and electronic health records of more than 25 million patients.
The network participated in a national pragmatic clinical trial known as the ADAPTABLE study which, in 2021, reported that a single daily baby or adult aspirin was equally safe and effective for the prevention of adverse cardiovascular events in patients with established cardiovascular disease.
A current study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and known as PREVENTABLE, is examining the potential of statins to prevent dementia in the elderly.
Other studies supported by the STAR CRN and PCORnet have included:
- A pragmatic trial evaluating approaches to early childhood obesity prevention
- A cohort study evaluating the relationship between COVID-19 and diabetes
- Whether, through the NIH ACTIV-6 platform, existing drugs can be “repurposed” to treat mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms
- Analysis of electronic health record data to examine Long COVID through the NIH RECOVER Initiative
Since it was established by Congress in 2010, PCORI has awarded more than $4.5 billion to fund patient-centered, clinical effectiveness research and other research-related projects. In the latest round of funding, announced Dec. 3, PCORI committed more than $156 million for new awards.
