SYRACUSE — The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) has approved a contract award of $25,000 for F.O.C.U.S. Greater Syracuse and its partners to continue work on a project focused on aging in Central New York. F.O.C.U.S. announced its initial PCORI contract award of $15,000 in May 2015 at Upstate Medical University. The organization is working […]
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SYRACUSE — The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) has approved a contract award of $25,000 for F.O.C.U.S. Greater Syracuse and its partners to continue work on a project focused on aging in Central New York.
F.O.C.U.S. announced its initial PCORI contract award of $15,000 in May 2015 at Upstate Medical University.
The organization is working on the Central New York Citizens Aging Research and Action Network (CNY-CAN) in partnership with HealtheConnections, Southwest Community Center, and SUNY Upstate Medical University, the organization said in a news release issued May 13.
PCORI had to approve what F.O.C.U.S. Greater Syracuse and its partners had worked on in the first year, says Charlotte (Chuckie) Holstein, executive director of F.O.C.U.S.
“They had a team of researchers from all over the country that looked at all of the Northeastern Tier I applicants and they liked what we did and we got a unanimous approval from all of the examiners of what we had done,” says Holstein. She spoke with CNYBJ on May 16.
F.O.C.U.S. Greater Syracuse is a nonprofit, “citizen-driven” organization serving Central New York that says it “taps citizen creativity and citizen engagement to impact change in Central New York by enabling citizens, organizations, and government to work together to enhance the quality of our lives and our economic future.” F.O.C.U.S. stands for “forging our community’s united strength.
HealtheConnections is a nonprofit that supports “the meaningful use of health information exchange and technology adoption, and the use of community health data and best practices, to enable Central New York stakeholders to transform and improve patient care, improve the health of populations and lower health-care costs,” according to its website.
PCORI is an independent, nonprofit organization that Congress authorized in 2010 to fund comparative-effectiveness research that provides patients, their caregivers, and clinicians with evidence needed to make better-informed health and healthcare decisions.
The project
CNY-CAN’s focus is on developing research projects that enable older adults to “age well” in their own homes for “as long as they wish,” even as health issues arise.
PCORI awarded CNY-CAN a Tier I contract in 2015 and “unanimously” selected the project for a Tier II contract award earlier this month on May 1.
Using the Tier I award, CNY-CAN went directly to the citizens, caregivers, providers, researchers, and other stakeholders to find out what research ideas are important to them, according to Holstein.
CNY-CAN identified six research ideas that compare two or more approaches to:
- empowering older adults to make their own health decisions;
- increasing early detection of health and social support needs;
- improving communication between providers and older adults and their caregivers;
- improving frail elder access to primary care in the home;
- reducing stress among patients and informal caregivers; and
- improving care provided by formal caregivers.
Under Tier II, CNY-CAN will continue to engage stakeholders in identifying one or two of those research topics to develop as a “competitive” research proposal.
“In the second phase, we’ll probably narrow down what we really think is critical for research for the older adult to be able to stay at home,” says Holstein.
To accomplish that, F.O.C.U.S. and its partners will seek input from older adults, physicians, caretakers, nonprofit organizations, and for-profit organizations.
Those involved in the CNY-CAN project are finding that older adults need an “advocate,” says Holstein.
“…somebody who’s there to go with you and do things with you to make sure you’re getting the proper health care,” she adds.
The advocate would go with an older adult to a doctor’s appointment or the pharmacist to make sure the individual understands what the physician or pharmacist has told them.
CNY-CAN wants to help “guide” aging-related research; participate in research and project teams; be “champions” for patient-centered research; help translate research into practice; and help sustain CNY-CAN as a community resource.
PCORI funds three tiers of awards that help build community partnerships, develop research capacity, and identify a research question to develop as a competitive research proposal to submit to PCORI or other funders.
Its “pipeline to proposal” awards enable individuals and groups not typically involved in clinical research to help identify priority issues for research and participate as members of research teams, according to the F.O.C.U.S. news release.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
