A partnership for the health of Floridians

A statewide partnership among UF, the University of Miami, Florida State University, health care systems, health plans, providers and patients was approved for a three-year, $7.9 million funding award by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, or PCORI, to support patient-centered health care research throughout Florida and the country. The funding award will create a clinical data research network that is part of a larger collaborative initiative called the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network, or PCORnet. PCORnet will enable researchers nationwide to conduct clinical research more quickly and less expensively than is now possible and will ensure that research focuses on the most important outcomes to patients. The PCORI funding will designate the statewide partnership, called the OneFlorida Clinical Research Consortium, as one of 13 clinical data research networks nationwide, which are working to accelerate the translation of promising research findings into improved patient care. OneFlorida initially will focus on high blood pressure, obesity and two rare genetic diseases, Duchenne muscular dystrophy and Phelan-McDermid syndrome. In a statewide survey, almost 75 percent of Floridians identified high blood pressure as their No.1 health care concern, and clinicians routinely identify that condition as a critical issue for their patients. — Elizabeth Hillaker Downs