Congratulations to Dr. Rosemary Martino and the UHN-led team on approval for a $8.5 million (USD) funding award by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). The multi-site PRO-ACTIVE study will focus on comparing the effectiveness of a prophylactic swallow intervention for patients receiving radiotherapy for head and neck cancer. These patients often experience serious difficulties swallowing as a result of their cancer or the radiotherapy used to treat it and a common current practice is to wait until these difficulties appear before starting therapy.
Dr. Martino’s PRO-ACTIVE study was selected through a highly competitive review process in which patients, caregivers, and other stakeholders joined scientists to evaluate the proposals. The award has been approved, pending completion of a business and programmatic review by PCORI staff and issuance of a formal award contract.
Two of Techna’s core teams will provide expertise, technology, development, and support for the study led by Dr. Martino. Quantitative Imaging for Personalized Cancer Medicine (QIPCM) will provide end-to-end medical imaging and RT solutions to enhance consistency and reliability in imaging and RT study data. Health Informatics Research (HIR) will enhance and customize their suite of technology solutions to support secure and high-quality collection of patient-reported outcomes and clinical research data.
PCORI is an independent, nonprofit organization authorized by the U.S. Congress in 2010. Its mission is to fund research that will provide patients, their caregivers, and clinicians with the evidence-based information needed to make better-informed healthcare decisions.