Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute has been awarded a $9 million contract to lead a consortium that will serve as the Coordinating Center for a new national data network designed to enhance the nation’s ability to conduct patient-centered comparative effectiveness research (CER). The project is funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).
Led by Richard Platt, head of the Harvard Medical School Department of Population Medicine at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, the Coordinating Center will provide technical and logistical support to the proposed new National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network.
“We are eager to assist PCORI in developing a learning health system that develops evidence as part of health care delivery,“ said Platt, who is also HMS professor of population medicine. “The National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network will provide information to patients and providers to guide their decisions and we are very excited to facilitate this important work.”
The initiative’s goal is to improve the nation’s capacity to conduct comparative effectiveness research efficiently and learn from the health care experiences of millions of Americans by creating a large network of health data representative of patients from across the country, the organizers said. In December, PCORI will award $67 million to create eight Clinical Data Research Networks and up to 18 Patient-Powered Research Networks. These networks, together with the Coordinating Center, will comprise the National Patient-Centered Research Network.
The Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute team includes experts in data standards, data security and privacy, medical ethics, patient-reported outcomes, project management, and research communications and dissemination. It has a history of managing and coordinating similar initiatives, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Mini-Sentinel Program and the National Institutes of Health’s Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory.
Joining Platt as directors of the Coordinating Center will be Robert Califf, vice chancellor for clinical and translational research, director of the Duke Translational Medicine Institute, and professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.
Additional collaborators will include staff from Academy Health, Brookings Institution, Center for Democracy and Technology, Center for Medical Technology Policy, Group Health Research Institute, and Johns Hopkins University. In addition, America’s Health Insurance Plans, the national trade association representing the health insurance industry, will support stakeholder engagement and RAND Corporation will lead external evaluation efforts.
Adapted from a Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute news release.
