September and October 2018 Notable Media Mentions

We regularly share highlights from news coverage of our work, including the growing collection of results from our funded studies. Here are some recent examples:

Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute Will Require Some Researchers to Share Data
Modern Healthcare, September 7, 2018

This article outlines PCORI’s new and far-reaching data management and data sharing policy, which lays out the expectation that our awardees will make the data and documentation from their PCORI-funded research projects available to third-party requestors. This will help other researchers who want to conduct re-analyses to verify findings, point out flaws, and advance research. “By supporting how others may use information generated by the studies we’ve funded, we’re helping to enhance the quality and increase the quantity of evidence for healthcare decision making. We’re also reducing redundancy in collecting clinical data sets, which can speed research and the production of more useful evidence,” PCORI Executive Director Joe Selby, MD, MPH, says in the article.

Additional coverage appeared in Applied Clinical Trials, Inside Health Policy, and Health IT Analytics.

VA Working to Slash Opioid Use amid New Research on Painkiller Alternatives
Military.com, September 4, 2018

This article focused on efforts to reduce opioids prescribing at Department of Veterans Affairs’ healthcare facilities, and mentions the ongoing PCORI-funded VOICE Study. The study compares patients working with a pharmacist care manager and primary care providers to those patients working with a medical provider, mental health provider, and pain clinicians.

Researchers are looking at which group of patients have less pain and take less opioid pain medication. As the article notes, “VA case studies indicate that veterans are twice as likely to die from an accidental opioid overdose compared to the general population.”

This principal investigator says the goal of her PCORI-funded study is to improve pain management and reduce prescription opioid use for American veterans.

Invest in ‘Precision Health’ to Better Care for High-Need, High-Cost Patients, AJMC Study Says
American Journal of Managed Care, September 20, 2018

This commentary by awardee Rainu Kaushal, MD, MPH, and a colleague highlighted their New York City-based PCORnet project that brings together 22 institutions to create a research network to share and use information on people with complex medical issues. The article notes that more than half of all health spending comes from 5 percent of the population. The authors note the factors that limit efforts to collect and analyze data about this group of patients.

How to Help Pain Patients Cut Back on Opioids
Scientific American, October 1, 2018

This is another article examining the national opioid epidemic—specifically, the lack of research on finding effective ways to taper opioid use. It highlights work by PCORI-funded researchers Beth Darnall, PhD, and Erin Krebs, MD, MPH. Darnall leads the EMPOWER Study comparing the effectiveness of different approaches to managing patients’ pain and opioid use, and Krebs leads the VOICE Study, which focuses on identifying ways to help veterans manage chronic pain and reduce opioid use. “If somebody is on opioids at high doses for many years, it takes time and work to help them come down from those doses,” Krebs says in the article.

New Tool Under Development May Help Arthritis Patients Better Assess Risks and Benefits of Treatment Choices, Study Shows
Global Banking & Finance Review, October 20, 2018

This article highlights studies conducted through PCORnet’s Patient-Powered Research Network Arthritis Power. The network brings together the Global Healthy Living Foundation, the CreakyJoints arthritis patient community, and researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. One of the seven studies presented at a rheumatology conference showcased a Global Patient-Reported Outcome Measure. The measure allows researchers to quantify and compare the distribution of patients’ experiences on medications. In the article, the study authors predict that the measure “will enable randomized controlled trials to report the percentage of patients classified into each level; thus, providing patients and their rheumatologists with a much clearer understanding of the range and likelihood of the total effects of competing treatment options on their quality of life.” 

Additional coverage appeared in BioSpace, and Benzinga.

Patient-Reported Outcomes Grow in Importance for Measuring Value in Healthcare
MedCityNews.com, October 24, 2018

This article highlights the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ recent advisory panel on patient-reported outcomes, or PROs. The panel voted in favor of using patient-reported outcomes in clinical trials of CAR-T cell therapies, a form of immunotherapy that uses specially altered T cells. “Using PROs and measuring them in research studies can help us better communicate the value of interventions to patients and their families,” Jean Slutsky, PA, MSPH, PCORI Chief Engagement and Dissemination Officer, who participated in the panel, said. “PROs assess domains of importance to patients and the effect the treatment is having on the patient, from the perspective of the patient.” 

Stay tuned for more highlights of our work.