Newswise — Katherine Barsness, MD, MS, pediatric surgeon at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Associate Professor of Surgery and Medical Education, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine has received a second funding award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).

The $25,000 award, provided through PCORI’s “Pipeline to Proposal” program, will continue to support a project that brings together patients and clinicians to discuss ways to improve the pediatric surgery patient experience. Through this project, titled, “Developing a Patient and Family-Centered Pediatric Surgical Collaborative,” in Phase I a patient-focused Advisory Board has been developed, comprised of individuals and groups who share a desire to improve patient/family experiences.

The Advisory Board members have provided input based on their surgical experiences, and will be developing interventions based on identified patient and stakeholder priorities. The intent is that these interventions can improve compliance with treatment recommendations and ultimately improve the patient experience.  In addition, these interventions can help decrease psychosocial stressors experienced during the surgical experience such as preoperative anxiety in the child and adult caregiver, and guide appropriate support for patients.

“In phase two we will be doing research training in addition to honing our ideas and themes identified in Tier I into more formal research questions,” said Dr. Barsness. “One of the developed research questions will ultimately be used in our submission to PCORI for a competitive grant.”

Established by the non-profit PCORI, the “Pipeline to Proposal” program funds three tiers of awards that help individuals or groups build community partnerships, develop research capacity, and hone a comparative effectiveness research question that could become the basis of a research funding proposal to submit to PCORI or other health research funders.

Tier II projects have demonstrated work intended to develop the capacity for patients, caregivers, and other stakeholders to participate in patient-centered clinical comparative effectiveness (CER) research.

“The Pipeline to Proposal awards program is a manifestation of PCORI’s commitment to the meaningful involvement of patients, caregivers, clinicians, and other stakeholders in all our research endeavors,” said Jean Slutsky, PA, MSPH, PCORI's Chief Engagement and Dissemination Officer. “It provides support to those who may not otherwise have an opportunity to contribute to the field of comparative effectiveness research. We’re pleased to follow the awardees’ progress as they develop partnerships and begin to form research questions.”

PCORI is an independent, non-profit organization authorized by Congress in 2010 to fund comparative effectiveness research that will provide patients, their caregivers, and clinicians with the evidence needed to make better-informed health and healthcare decisions. PCORI is committed to seeking input from a broad range of stakeholders to guide its work.

Lurie Children’s is the only children’s hospital in Illinois and one of only a very few in the country, recognized by the American College of Surgeons as a Level I pediatric surgery center, the highest quality designation possible.  It is ranked as one of the nation’s top children’s hospitals in the U.S. News & World Report, and is the pediatric training ground for Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Last year, the hospital served more than 174,000 children from 50 states and 48 countries.

For more information on the Patient and Family-Centered Pediatric Surgical Collaborative visithttp://www.pcori.org/research-results/2016/developing-pediatric-surgical-collaborative-tier-i