The Improving Healthcare Systems (IHS) program within the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) www.pcori.org has published a funding announcement. PCORI is looking for proposers to study the comparative effectiveness of alternate features of healthcare systems designed to optimize the quality, outcomes, and/or efficiency of care for patients. These systems can include innovative technologies, personnel deployments, incentives, and service designs.
Healthcare organizations are under constant pressure to improve systems of care, but often lack the critical information needed to guide decisions related to system-level issues. Research is needed to develop a body of evidence to support effective interventions to help organizations provide higher quality care, better access to care, and more coordinated care.
The IHS program has identified four major categories for innovation that have an especially high potential to drive improvements in healthcare systems and outcomes:
- Information technology or other electronic technologies such as interoperative electronic health records, telemedicine, and patient accessible medical records
- Creative incentives such as offering free or subsidized self-care opportunities to patients, offering value-based payments to healthcare providers, and shared savings
- Novel deployment of personnel such as multidisciplinary teams, peer navigators, community health workers, and home care physicians
- Developing organizational policies such as standing orders
The studies should be designed to determine the differential effect of system-level innovations on subpopulations of people with multiple chronic conditions, mental or physical disabilities, frailty, low health literacy, unfamiliarity with the English language, low income, lack of access to primary care, and help people living in rural and inner city locations.
Applications will be accepted from any private sector research organization including nonprofit or for profit organizations, public sector research organizations, or any unit of local, state, or federal government.
Maximum project budget totals $5 million for large studies, and $1.5 million for small studies. Funds for a total of $16 million are available.
Letters of Intent are due September 5, 2014 and those selected will be permitted to submit full applications. Application deadline for the full application is November 3, 2014 with awards to be announced April/May 2015.
Go to www.pcori.org/fall-2014-systems for application guidelines, templates, and other resources to help with the application and for specific questions, email pfa@pcori.org.