Oakland, Calif. (July 9, 2012) – The Kaiser Permanente Division of Research has been selected to receive $648,000 from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to study patient preferences in decision-making about childhood vaccines, PCORI has announced. The award is part of PCORI’s Pilot Projects Program, which will address a broad range of questions about methods to engage patients in health and healthcare research and dissemination. The project is one of the first group of awards funded by this innovative new institute.
Tracy Lieu, MD, MPH, Director of the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, will lead the two- year research project at The Division of Research. The long-term goal of this work is to help parent preferences become more fully incorporated in policy and clinical decisions about how childhood vaccines are administered.
“Parent concerns about the safety of childhood vaccines are a salient health care issue that affects every parent and child in the nation. The most common parent concern is that children are receiving too many vaccinations in one doctor’s visit,” said Lieu. “In contrast current , national recommendations specify simultaneous administration of all vaccines due at a visit. In an ideal world, parent preferences could play an important role in national policy and clinical decisions about multiple vaccines, but data on well-informed preferences is lacking.”
PCORI is an independent, non-profit organization whose establishment was authorized by Congress in 2010. Its mission is to fund research that will provide patients, their caregivers and clinicians with the evidence-based information needed to make better-informed health care decisions.
“The Pilot Projects will improve our understanding of how to conduct research and disseminate research findings in ways that are more responsive to the needs of patients and the health care community,” said PCORI Executive Director Joe Selby, MD, MPH. “We are excited to be funding 50 projects nationwide, led by creative and innovative researchers. Their work will help us establish a foundation for patient-centered outcomes research that will give patients, caregivers and clinicians the tools they need every day.”
PCORI is committing $30 million in funding over two years for the pilot projects, which were selected by PCORI ‘s Board of Governors through a competitive, multi-stage review process. Proposals were evaluated for their scientific merit and rigor and fit within eight areas of interest outlined in the pilot projects announcement.
Awards, approved for research institutions in 24 states and the District of Columbia, include those for projects designed to develop a range of tools and techniques aimed at improving patient-centered care and decision-making; create new patient-centered care measures; and improve delivery of patient-centered counseling and care in various health care settings.
