The Patient-Centered Outcomes and Survivorship Award (PCOSA) mechanism is being offered for the first time in FY23.
The Patient-Centered Outcomes and Survivorship Award supports high-risk, high-reward research studies that span the spectrum of behavioral health science, survivorship, health outcomes and comparative effectiveness research, including quality of life, symptom and side effect management, resilience, co-morbid conditions, and examining the physical, psychological, social, and economic effects of lung cancer among patients and their families.
The overall intent of the FY23 LCRP Patient-Centered Outcomes and Survivorship Award is to promote evidence-based and patient-centered approaches to improve health and lung cancer related outcomes and enhance the patient experience in defined populations. Research studies may include, but are not limited to:
Studies to examine and improve quality of life, decision-making, and symptom and side effect management (e.g., toxicity of treatment, palliative/supportive care, psychological distress and anxiety).
• Studies to investigate the impact of prevention, diagnostics, treatment, or health care delivery approaches on health outcomes.
• Studies to assess the relationship(s) between behavioral, cognitive, and/or social functioning in relation to lung cancer detection, initiation, progression, treatment, and rehabilitation.
• Studies into the psychological health and well-being of those affected by lung cancer (e.g., patients, family members).
• Development and testing for efficacy of lifestyle interventions and symptom management approaches to minimize disease risk and maximize quality of life.
Key aspects of this award mechanism are:
• Impact: The Patient-Centered Outcomes and Survivorship Award is intended to support research that demonstrates the potential to have a major impact on patient outcomes. Research should challenge paradigms with respect to impact on patient care and outcomes. Proposed projects may include translational or clinical research, including pilot clinical trials. Impactful research will accelerate the movement of promising ideas into clinical applications, generate knowledge to improve clinical guidelines, or significantly advance behavioral, cognitive, and/or social functioning related to the target population.
• Study Design: Applications should clearly articulate the chosen design of the study. Basic studies should demonstrate research strategy, feasibility, and how the study relates to the human experience with lung cancer. Studies entailing retrospective or prospective recruitment should define the type of architecture of the study (e.g., descriptive, correlational, field experimental, meta-analyses). Study populations should be defined. The rationale should support the chosen study design with statistical evaluation to back the design. Questionnaires should be described in sufficient detail to justify interpretation of potential results.
• Preliminary Data: The Patient-Centered Outcomes and Survivorship Award requires preliminary data for all studies that propose the active (prospective) recruitment of human subjects. Studies not proposing active recruitment of human subjects are not required to present preliminary data, but should be supported by sound reasoning and relevant literature.
• Patient Advocate Participation: Applications to the Patient-Centered Outcomes and Survivorship Award funding opportunity are encouraged to include a patient advocate. As part of the research team, the patient advocate would assist in the development of the research question, project design, oversight, recruitment, and evaluation, as well as other significant aspects of the proposed project. The patient advocate will be a person with a history of lung cancer diagnosis. As a lay representative, the patient advocate should be active in a cancer advocacy organization. Interactions with other team members should be well integrated and ongoing, not limited to attending seminars and semi-annual meetings. The role of the patient advocate should be focused on providing objective input on the research and its potential impact for individuals with or at risk for lung cancer.
Relevance to Military Health: The LCRP seeks to support research that is relevant to the health care needs of military Service Members, Veterans, and their families. Relevance to military health will be considered in determining relevance to the mission of the Defense Health Program (DHP) and FY23 LCRP during programmatic review. Investigators are strongly encouraged to consider the following characteristics as examples of how a project may demonstrate relevance to military health:
• Use of military or Veteran populations, biospecimens, data/databases, or programs in the proposed research.
• Collaboration with Department of Defense (DOD) or Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) investigators.
• Explanation of how the project addresses an aspect of lung cancer that has relevance or is unique to the military, Veterans, other Military Health System (MHS) beneficiaries, or family readiness of Service Members, including environmental exposures other than tobacco.
The proposed research must be relevant to active-duty Service Members, Veterans, military beneficiaries, and/or the American public.