CTSI Involved in Three Awards to Shape National Clinical Research Data Network
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), which is authorized by Congress to conduct research to provide information about the best available evidence to help patients and their health care providers make more informed decisions, has awarded five grants to investigators at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Three of these involve team members from its Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI).
PCORI recently granted 71 awards totaling $114 million. The three involving UCSF’s CTSI are among 29 grants related to clinical research data networks that received $93.5 million to develop a National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network (PCORnet). The national network will include two types of networks – Patient-Powered Research Network (PPRNs) and Clinical Data Research Networks (CDRNs). UCSF successfully applied for two PPRN nodes.
The first involves the Health eHeart Alliance PPRN (awarded $1,000,000), an extension of the larger Health eHeart study, which will be led by Mark Pletcher, MD, MPH, director of CTSI’s Consultation Services. It aims to “generate and test new patient-designed interventions for improving cardiovascular health.”
Sharon Terry, president and CEO of Genetic Alliance, will lead the second UCSF-related PPRN along with co-principal investigators Mini Kahlon, PhD, executive director of CTSI, and Nick Anderson, PhD, director of Informatics Research at the UC Davis School of Medicine. The team proposed a Community-Engaged Network for All (CENA, awarded $1,000,000) to invite and engage participant-centric research in 10 disease areas. The roots of this partnership were established during UCSF’s OME Precision Medicine Summit.
“This funding can be linked to OME and the opportunities it provided – it ties to the University’s vision of participants pushing for radical changes to enable precision medicine,” stated Kahlon.
CTSI will also participate in a Clinical Data Research Network (CDRN) (“Patient-Oriented Scalable National Network for Effectiveness Research” – pSCANNER) led by UC San Diego, with UCSF site leads Kahlon and Mike Steinman, MD, director of Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) at CTSI.
“I’m thrilled that UCSF investigators continue to have success in securing PCORI funds,” said Steinman, noting that UCSF has received more awards from PCORI than any other single institution nationally.
According to Kahlon and Steinman, these three awards also give UCSF the opportunity to help participate in and shape the vision of the PCORI national network, one of the largest clinical research data networks envisioned and funded in the nation to date.
See official PCORI Grant Press Releases here:
Genetic Alliance Press Release