Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) LEND Faculty to Start a 2-year Pilot Autism Research Project
October 2, 2012
Dr. Katherine Bevans, CHOP LEND Research faculty, received a $668,000 federal grant, from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), to help establish methods for ensuring that families' health-related goals are included as outcomes in clinical trials and comparative effectiveness research. The project will develop an interactive computer-based program that will allow parents and children to make a series of choices about their aspirations for treatment. The project will monitor whether this mechanism results in improvements in communication and increases patient involvement. While the project will center on autism, it will also include asthma, epilepsy, and obesity, with modifications in the interactive computer-based program for those conditions.
Dr. Bevans collaborated with LEND Family faculty, Amy Kratchman, and will recruit a family advisory group composed of parents and children with medical diagnoses to help guide the study. Dr. Bevans reported that family involvement as co-investigators will improve methods that will lead to optimal patient outcomes.
