PCORI to award $7 million contract to Chicago coalition to establish clinical data research network

On December 17, 2013, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) announced its intention to award an 18-month, $7 million contract to a Chicago area coalition of 20 health and hospital organizations including Loyola University Health System. Through the contract, coalition members will establish a clinical data research network called the Chicago Area Patient Centered Clinical Outcomes Research Network (CAPriCORN). CAPriCORN will provide a data and informatics infrastructure to support collaboration among scientists in conducting patient-centered outcomes research, with the ultimate goal of improving patient outcomes.

During the next 18 months, coalition members will pool data from more than 1 million patients and establish a network that will help researchers locally and nationwide learn how providers can overcome barriers of competition, care fragmentation and limited resources. This will aid in the development, testing and implementation of effective strategies to improve care for diverse populations and reduce health disparities. Loyola University Health System participation in CAPriCORN will rely on utilization of an award-winning clinical research database technology that was developed in partnership with the Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine's Office of Informatics and Systems Development.

CAPriCORN will model how health-care institutions in complex urban settings can improve health outcomes and drive down costs for rare and common conditions such as sickle cell disease, asthma, anemia, recurrent Clostridium difficile infection, obesity and diabetes. On the national level, CAPriCORN is one of 29 individual health data networks across the country that PCORI has funded to create PCORnet, the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network. This large, highly representative, national network aims to improve the nation's capacity to conduct clinical outcomes research more efficiently and learn from the health-care experiences of millions of Americans.

With the PCORI funds, CAPriCORN members will compile clinical data; design systems to conduct Comparative Effectiveness Research trials and observational studies in the Chicago area and nationally; establish procedures for clinical data standardization and sharing across participating health-care delivery institutions that can be used for performance measurement and quality improvement; engage patients, clinicians and health system leadership in governance and use of CAPriCORN data resources; and recruit and survey clinical research study participants.

This unprecedented collaboration will be led by The Chicago Community Trust with administrative support from the Illinois Medical District Commission. Participating healthcare delivery institutions include Alliance of Chicago's Federally Qualified Health Centers, Cook County Health and Hospital Systems, Loyola University Health System, NorthShore University Health System, Northwestern Medicine, Rush University Medical Center, University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System, University of Chicago Medicine and two Veterans Administration Hospitals. Other CAPriCORN partners include Loyola University Chicago, University Health System Consortium, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago Health IT Regional Extension Center, Medical Research Analytics and Informatics Alliance, Center for Medical Technology Policy, Clinical Directors Network, RAND, Tufts University Clinical Translational Science Institute and Vanderbilt University.

Source: http://www.pcori.org