Officials at the University of Kansas Medical Center today announced the launch of three projects aimed at figuring out which drugs and therapies offer the most effective cures and quickly sharing the findings with physicians throughout the United States.
The three projects are being funded by a $10 million grant from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, an independent, non-profit organization authorized by provisions in the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
PCORI announced the grants – $93.5 million nationwide – last month.
The three grants awarded to KU Medical Center were:
$1.5 million for a three-year clinical trial to evaluate four drugs used to relieve pain, numbness, and tingling in the arms and legs.
$1.7 million for an evaluation of nicotine replacement therapies used to help patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease quit smoking.
$7 million to create a network of 10 medical centers in seven states that will build an electronic medical record-driven data base for evaluating cures for breast cancer, obesity, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
“We’ll be able to see in real time if what’s working for breast cancer patients in Minnesota is leading to better results than what’s working for breast cancer patients in Texas,” said L. Russell Waitman, director of medical informatics and assistant vice chancellor for enterprise analytics at KU Medical Center.
The network, he said, will be called The Greater Plains Collaborative and will include research institutions in Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, Texas, Minnesota, Missouri, and Kansas.
The Greater Plains Collaborative, one of 11 data-sharing networks being underwritten by PCORI, will be housed at KU Medical Center.
PCORI also awarded clinical trial grants for assessing treatments meant for several conditions, including sleep apnea, mood disorders, lung disease, multiple sclerosis, kidney impairments, and heart disease.
Waitman said anyone interested in taking part in one the Greater Plains Collaborative trials is encouraged to check the Heartland Institute for Clinical and Institutional Research website: www.frontiersresearch.org.
The institute also is housed at KU Medical Center.
-KHI News Service