Two health research networks led by Mayo Clinic researchers recently received more than $10 million in grants after being selected to join the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute's National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network (PCORnet).
The Patient-Centered Network of Learning Health Systems, led by Dr. Jyotishman Pathak, received $8.6 million, while the National Alzheimer's and Dementia Patient and Caregiver-Powered Research Network, led by Dr. Glenn Smith, was awarded $1.5 million.
Pathak's health network will bring together a number of diverse institutions that have been informally collaborating for 10 years and serve approximately 10 million patients. Through standing advisory councils, patients and families, clinicians, researchers, health systems and payers involved with these institutions will collaborate to develop the network and conduct research, ensuring studies are coordinated and patient needs come first.
Smith's health network will serve to connect patients, caregivers and researchers focused on developing, conducting and disseminating dementia research studies. Although 5 million Americans currently suffer from dementia, and that number is expected to triple over the next 35 years, no treatments are scientifically proven to alter the course of the disease.
Composed of participants who are at risk for having, or care for someone who has Alzheimer's disease or dementia, Dr. Smith's network is a partnership between USAgainstAlzheimer's, the Mayo Clinic and the University of California-San Francisco's Brain Health Registry.
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The PCORI is an independent, nonprofit organization authorized by Congress in 2010 to fund health research. Developed by the PCORI in 2014, the PCORnet functions to form and strengthen partnerships between researchers, patient communities, clinicians and health systems in order to conduct clinical studies more quickly and less expensively.
