PCORI To Launch Comparative-Effectiveness Research Network.

Taken from DIA Daily. This daily enewsletter features summaries of breaking news and information about the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device fields from thousands of global news sources. This easy-to-read enewsletter is delivered to your inbox every business morning. Subscribe to the DIA Daily.

The Washington Post (4/24, Kliff) "Wonkblog" reports a "new nonprofit is putting millions" of Federal healthcare reform money "towards an effort to turn routine doctor visits into a treasure trove of data on what medical treatments work best." The Patient Centered Research Outcomes Institute, which the Affordable Care Act created to "support comparative effectiveness research," announced Tuesday that it "would move forward on that mission" by spending "$68 million to fund a network of health-care systems that cover as many as 12 million patients."

        CQ (4/24, Adams, Subscription Publication) adds that the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research Director Janet Woodcock, MD, "noted that the FDA has been involved for decades in trying to support comparative effectiveness research and find out more about the products that the agency approves for use in the United States." According to Dr. Woodcock, "What the FDA needs and what the medical community needs is actionable information."

        According to Government Health IT (4/24, Sullivan), the "hybrid model will include patients, health systems, payers, physicians and researchers as active participants in the research. To that end, PCORI detailed two cooperative funding agreement opportunities to support the creation of Clinical Data Research Networks (CRDN) and Patient-Powered Research Networks (PPRNs)." For the CRDNs, PCORI "will award $56 million to as many as 8 existing or new networks, while the PPRNs funding total is $12 million, available to 18 networks," according to the statement the institute released yesterday.

        Modern Healthcare (4/24, Robeznieks, Subscription Publication) notes that PCORI Executive Director Dr. Joe Selby announced the funding during a roundtable discussion in the District of Columbia. "Putting patients' interests first in such an endeavor can make a difference and 'smooth the friction' between stakeholders," Selby "said of the project's patient-first focus." American Medical Association President-Elect Dr. Ardis Hoven, who was one of the roundtable participants, "called the effort 'an exciting opportunity,' and noted its potential for advancing the use of information gleaned from clinical registries into medicine." Organizations interested in participating in the network "must file a letter of intent by June 19 and must complete an application by Sept. 27."

Sign up for DIA's Global SmartBrief eNews for the latest in drug development innovations worldwide.