The Cancer Letter

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PCORI approves $42 million in funding for comparative studies on healthcare approaches

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The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute Board of Governors has green-lighted nearly $42 million to fund 19 new studies comparing which healthcare approaches work best.

Thirteen of the projects will support research on which care options work best in treating a range of conditions and problems that impose high burdens on patients, caregivers, and the healthcare system. These include:

  • A $6 million study to compare the effectiveness of two types of palliative care, hospital-based versus home-based, in reducing patients’ pain, anxiety and depression.

  • A $2.7 million study to determine the effect of accupressure on relieving treatment-related symptoms in children with cancer.

  • A $2.3 million project to determine whether established treatment or a newer drug is more effective against treatment-resistant cases of Kawasaki disease, which can cause heart problems in children.

Another six projects will study ways to improve methods for conducting patient-centered outcomes research. Among them are projects on assessing the quality of communications between healthcare providers and patients, preserving patient privacy when data sets including medical information are linked, and measuring patients’ preferences.

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