Feb. 24--The latest round of research funding through the Affordable Care Act was approved Tuesday, totaling $64 million for five projects.
More dollars will be awarded throughout the year. Illinois hospitals so far have secured about $35 million since 2012 to help them find answers to some of the most elusive health care questions.
The new health law, often called Obamacare, established the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to facilitate billions in funding through 2019 for research at hospitals and other facilities.
The announcement brings the total amount awarded to $738.4 million to more than 400 projects and programs across the country. Tuesday's awards ranged from $7.8 million to $14.5 million.
The most recent recipients are the University of California at San Francisco; Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle; Wake Forest University Health Sciences in North Carolina; the Kaiser Foundation Research Institute in California; and the University of Pittsburgh.
The projects will focus on topics such as breast cancer screening and stroke survivor care.
The biggest Chicago project received about $7 million in 2013 to participate as one of 11 networks in a nationwide research initiative that aims to transform how medical research is conducted in the U.S. More funds are expected to be awarded in Illinois later this year when the initial funding runs out in August.
The Chicago network plans to focus on health issues such as obesity, anemia, asthma and diabetes, as well as rare diseases such as sickle cell disease.
Sixteen other research projects are ongoing in Illinois.
The ultimate goal is to make care better, and cheaper, by implementing tools for doctors and patients to use based on the research.
"We're very cognizant of the importance of implementation of important findings," the research institute's Chief Science Officer Bryan Luce said during the Tuesday board of governors meeting in Washington, D.C. "That's the reason for this extensive engagement that you saw for each one of these projects."
ehirst@tribpub.com
