Health Care

UW recieves $25m for trials on mental health and appendicitis care

By Seattle Business Magazine September 4, 2015

In another big win for UW Medicine and for furthering evidence-based medicine, UW researchers received two of four grants awarded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Here’s a letter from UW Medicine CEO Paul Ramsey announcing the award.

I am very pleased to announce that UW Medicine researchers will receive a total of $25 million in the most recent contracts announced by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). Funding for research from PCORI, an independent, nonprofit institute authorized by Congress in 2010, is widely sought and highly valued nationally.

PCORI funds evidence-based research needed to make better informed healthcare decisions. The current round of national funding totals $60 million. There were 132 letters of interest and 24 applications for this highly competitive funding and only four new projects were selected nationally.

The two UW Medicine projects selected for funding represent areas of national significance: ways to improve behavioral and mental health care in rural areas and a patient-centered study of treatment options for appendicitis. The studies aim to produce results that are relevant to a broad range of patients and care settings and easier to adopt in routine clinical practice.

One trial, led by John Fortney, UW professor of psychiatry & behavioral sciences, and Jurgen Unutzer, chair of the UW Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, will compare use of an integrated care model in rural primary care clinics to use of telemedicine-facilitated referrals to offsite mental health specialists. This $11.7 million trial will be the largest study of rural Americans with a psychiatric disorder ever conducted. One thousand primary care patients screening positive for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or bipolar disorder will be recruited from 15 Community Health Centers in three states (Arkansas, Michigan, and Washington) and randomized to the integrated care model or the referral model.

The other trial, led by David Flum, UW professor of surgery, will compare surgery to antibiotics-first treatment for uncomplicated appendicitis. This $12.9 million project will recruit 1,552 patients and include physicians from 10 Washington state hospitals. This will be the largest randomized controlled trial of its kind and the first looking at both clinical outcomes and patient-reported outcomes that matter most to patients, such as time off work, anxiety associated with the risk of reoccurrence and quality of life.

Congratulations to Drs. Fortney, Flum and many others involved in this important work. These two major projects will provide important information to improve health.

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