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Susan Woods responded to my previous post, PCORI and Just-In Time Decisions with the research funding system doesn’t really work for anyone. It is in concrete, Agreed.  Micro Contracts could be a small intervention that could help move the dial. (As a reminder, the Boston contingent of PCORI ambassadors, including S4PM member, Ken Farbstein, made three recommendations to the PCORI Board.) This is a report on the second recommendation.

Patient-driven, patient-centric research opportunities are less likely to be prepared to submit high scoring proposals than traditional research teams.

Many professionals and patients don’t yet appreciate the innovation that patient-professional partnerships bring. We’re all patients is a common refrain from professionals when entering into collaboration with patients for the first time. That may be true, yet if that were enough, our health care system would have achieved a level of patient-centeredness that would render initiatives like PCORI unnecessary. Including people who are able work collaboratively while still retaining the unique vantage point of their own stakeholder group is critical to producing ideas innovative enough to handle the challenges our health care system is facing.
The Boston PCORI ambassadors found that

  1. PCORI’s current structure of supplying large grants to a small number of projects favors established research teams and paradigms.
  2. Alternative, nacient teams are less likely to receive highest scores in grant proposal requests.
  3. Research projects addressing partnership innovation, cultural change, social and behavioral determinants, or dissemination are likely not to be funded.

Therefore ambassadors recommended that PCORI:

  • Allocate a defined proportion of funding for a larger number of smaller projects in the form of micro-contracts that either prepare a submitting team for a high scoring large grant or addresses research into partnership innovation, cultural change, social and behavioral determinants, or dissemination.

Apparently, PCORI is considering this recommendation. I’m looking forward to following their next steps.

 

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