Since August 1, 2010, Iowa CERT investigators have been awarded seven new grants and a master contract to study or spread information on which treatments work best. Unlike the experiments used to establish efficacy of a treatment before it can be approved for marketing, our studies will observe the effectiveness of treatments: how well they work when people in the “real world” take them. All of the new studies are asking questions about which treatments work best for patients with complex needs, such as the oldest patients, those with several medical conditions, or those who take a large number of medications.

Four of the new grants are dedicated to finding out what treatments work best for patients with heart disease:

• Enhanced data to accelerate complex patient comparative effectiveness research. A cardiovascular disease experiment. (Elizabeth Chrischilles, PhD, Principal Investigator) AHRQ 1R24HS019440
• Should Utilization Rates of High-Dose Statins for Complex Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) Patients Be Expanded? (John Brooks, PhD, Principal Investigator) AHRQ 1R01HS018381
• Comparative Effectiveness of Cardiovascular Treatment Combinations Post AMI in the Elderly (John Brooks, PhD, Principal Investigator) AHRQ 1R01HS018381
• Interpreting instrumental variables estimates when treatment effects are heterogeneous across patients: ACE/ARBs and Race. (John Brooks, PhD, Principal Investigator) NIH 1RC4AG038635

We are particularly excited about our grant to adapt and disseminate materials about managing challenging behaviors among patients with dementia. This project is a partnership among a wide group of organizations, many of whom were founding partners for the Iowa CERT:

• IA-ADAPT: Improving Antipsychotic Appropriateness in Dementia (Ryan Carnahan, PharmD, MS) AHRQ R18 HS19355-01

Another project will study the performance of a non-invasive test to screen for colon cancer, compared to colonoscopies. This study will also examine attitudes and preferences about these different screening options:

• Comparative Effectiveness of FIT vs. Colonoscopy for Colon Cancer Screening (Barcey Levy, MD, PhD) 5RC1CA144907-02

Finally, The Iowa CERT and partners were recently awarded a master contract to participate in the Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions about Effectiveness (DEcIDE) Network. The new Iowa DEcIDE Center includes data resources and clinical and methodologist investigators in the AHRQ priority areas and particularly cancer, cardiovascular disease, mental health, and end-stage renal disease.

For more information on these grants, please go to our Grant Descriptions page.