NIH to create primary care-based 'real world' research network
One goal of the $30 million pilot program, Communities Advancing Research Equity for Health, is to find out what works in the real world.
The National Institutes of Health hopes to increase the amount of medical research happening in ordinary primary care medical offices.
NIH will spend $30 million this year and in 2025 to start the Communities Advancing Research Equity for Health, or CARE for Health, primary care research pilot program.
The CARE for Health pilot program will support research in areas such as disease prevention, health care delivery and care for people with multiple health problems, with a focus on studies that could help people in underserved communities, officials say.
The providers can choose which studies they participate in based on their communities’ priorities, and the study managers will share the overall results with the research participants, officials say.
Applications for the first round of CARE for Health grants are due June 14.
NIH expects to start by awarding $5 million to two to five organizations that will set up primary care research hubs.
The first hubs will serve communities.
The hub builders must already be working with NIH clinical research programs or other federal clinic research programs. They could be colleges, universities, state or local governments, research centers or for-profit businesses.
Outside organizations, including for-profit companies, may be able to use the new primary research network infrastructure for their own research projects.
One long-term care project goal is to increase people’s trust in science, by addressing community needs.
Another goal is increase the odds that patients will get and use evidence-based care.
Dr. Monica Bertagnoli, the NIH director, wrote in an editorial published last week in Science that the project is part of the fight to reverse the recent increases in mortality rates for some segments of the U.S. population.
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“Research must be integrated into clinical care and community settings, reaching patients from all walks of life,” Bertagnoli says.