Georgia CORE Receives Funding Award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute

5/19/2015

The Georgia Center for Oncology Research and Education (Georgia CORE), will receive an award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to support “Patient-Centered Cancer Survivorship Care:  Improving Quality of Care and Quality of Life for Survivors in Georgia.”

This Pipeline to Proposal project was developed collaboratively with Lanell Bellury, PhD, an expert in cancer survivorship and Associate Professor at Georgia Baptist College of Nursing of Mercer University. The award from PCORI will enable Georgia CORE to engage cancer survivors, healthcare providers and many other stakeholders in the process of developing research to address the needs of vulnerable cancer survivors in Georgia.  "The on-going healthcare needs of cancer survivors, especially vulnerable older and minority survivors, are well recognized yet little evidence exists to guide the best care for survivors. With the number of cancer survivors growing exponentially, it is imperative that we discover the best way to meet the needs of survivors across the state," notes Dr. Bellury.

According to Nancy Paris, Georgia CORE’s President, “Angie Patterson, Georgia CORE’s Vice President and a 14 year cancer survivor, will work with Dr. Bellury to develop and implement the Patient-Centered Cancer Survivorship Care program.”  The award is one of only two contracted out in Georgia by PCORI in this round.  Technical assistance and support will be provided by the Southern Pipeline to Proposal Award Office in the Georgia State University Andrew Young School of Policy Studies to ensure the success of this effort. 

In 2014, Ms. Patterson led the development of Georgia CORE’s Cancer Survivorship Connection (www.GeorgiaCancerInfo.org/Survivorship) with funding from Tom and Karen Chapman.  The interactive website serves as a resource center for the state's growing survivorship population -- now estimated at 356,000. “As a breast cancer survivor and the daughter of a two-time lung cancer survivor, I know first-hand how vitally important it is for survivors and caregivers to have access to care plans and resources.  This work is near and dear to my heart,” said Ms. Patterson. 

Georgia CORE is a public-private partnership led by a Board of Directors of cancer experts focused on bringing higher quality, better organized and more cost-effective care to cancer patients and survivors across the state of Georgia. Georgia CORE’s flagship resource www.GeorgiaCancerInfo.org is the only online information center of its kind, where details can be found on oncologists, clinical trials, treatment centers and survivorship resources throughout the state.  The organization’s funders and sponsors include the State of Georgia, Georgia Department of Public Health, Georgia Society of Clinical Oncology, Georgia Research Alliance, Georgia Department of Community Health, State Office of Rural Health, Northside Hospital Cancer Institute, private foundations and individual donors. More information on Georgia CORE can be found at www.georgiacore.org.

Pipeline to Proposal Awards enable individuals and groups that are not typically involved in clinical research to cultivate the means to develop community-led funding proposals focused on patient-centered comparative effectiveness research (CER). Established by the non-profit PCORI, the 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.

PCORI is an independent, non-profit organization authorized by Congress in 2010 to fund comparative effectiveness research through contracts 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. 

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