Emergency medicine researcher approved for UF’s first PCORI funding award

A research team at the University of Florida has been approved for a funding award by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, or PCORI, to study emergency department-to-home transitions for patients with chronic medical conditions.

The study is one of 82 proposals approved for PCORI funding on Dec. 17 to advance the field of patient-centered comparative effectiveness research and provide patients with information that will help them make better-informed decisions about their care.

PCORI is an independent, nonprofit organization authorized by Congress in 2010 to fund research that give patients a better understanding of available prevention, treatment and care options.

Principal investigator Donna Lynne Carden, M.D., will lead the three-year research project at UF. Her team hopes to break the cycle of repeated, costly and preventable emergency department visits and hospital admissions by improving the patient transition from emergency department to home.

The study will compare a community-based social and medical support system to the usual post-emergency department care. It will focus on older, chronically ill patients who can find the transition from the emergency department confusing and anxiety provoking, said Carden, a professor and director of faculty development in the department of emergency medicine in the UF College of Medicine.

“Our entire research team is excited and honored that PCORI has given us the opportunity to test our theory that a community-based intervention will contribute to understanding how clinicians and the care delivery systems they work in can help patients make the best decisions about their health and health care,” she said.

Carden’s study and the other projects approved for funding by PCORI’s Board of Governors were selected from 624 applications. All were selected through a highly competitive review process in which patients, caregivers and other stakeholders joined scientists to evaluate the proposals.

Applications were assessed for scientific merit, how well they will engage patients and other stakeholders, and their methodological rigor among other criteria.

“This award is significant as it supports how individuals with emergency medicine backgrounds like Dr. Carden can effectively participate in the larger conversations about our health system and contribute effectively to health services research,” said Joseph Adrian Tyndall, M.D., M.P.H., chairman of emergency medicine at the UF College of Medicine.

For the study, Carden is collaborating with faculty and staff from the UF College of Medicine, the UF College of Medicine-Jacksonville, the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions, the University of North Carolina Wilmington School of Nursing, Florida Medical Quality Assurance Inc., the Area Agency on Aging in Gainesville and Jacksonville, and emergency department patients.

Her study joins PCORI's portfolio of 279 comparative effectiveness research studies and initiatives. It is one of eight such studies in Florida and the first at UF.

PCORI has awarded a total of $464.4 million since 2012. The exact amount awarded to UF is not yet determined; all awards are approved pending completion of a business and programmatic review by PCORI staff and issuance of a formal award contract.