Collaborative to improve screening for intimate partner violence approved for PCORI funding

Elizabeth Cox, MD, PhDElizabeth Cox, associate professor of pediatrics at UW-Madison, in collaboration with Laurie Thompsen, MSW from the West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Danielle Davidov, PhD, assistant professor of emergency medicine at West Virginia University, recently received approval for a Pipeline to Proposal Tier II award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). This award through PCORI’s Pipeline to Proposal Awards program will support the West Virginia Asking Women About Relationship Experiences (AWARE) Collaborative for Intimate Partner Violence Screening.

Although 7 million U.S. women experience intimate partner violence (IPV), only 3-10% of IPV victims are identified by healthcare professionals due to low screening rates. These rates are especially low in underserved rural areas due to geographic and social isolation.

The West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence will lead this project to transform the healthcare system’s response to intimate partner violence. This collaborative seeks to understand IPV from the perspectives of victims, their families, advocacy groups, policy makers, and healthcare and criminal justice systems. Feedback from this diverse group of stakeholders will be used to inform safe and effective IPV screening in healthcare settings.

Read more about the West Virginia AWARE Collaborative for Intimate Partner Violence Screening project here.

PCORI Pipeline to Proposal Awards enable individuals and groups that are not typically involved in clinical research to develop the means to develop community-led funding proposals on patient-centered comparative effectiveness research (CER). Established by the non-profit PCORI, the program funds help individuals or groups build community partnerships, develop research capacity, and hone a comparative effectiveness research question that could become the basis of a research funding proposal to submit to PCORI or other health research funders.

“The Pipeline to Proposal Awards program is a manifestation of PCORI’s commitment to the meaningful involvement of patients, caregivers, clinicians, and other stakeholders in all our research endeavors,” said Jean Slutsky, PA, MSPH, PCORI’s Chief Engagement and Dissemination Officer. “It provides support to those who may not otherwise have an opportunity to contribute to the field of comparative effectiveness research. We’re pleased to follow the awardees’ progress as they develop partnerships and begin to form research questions.”

PCORI is an independent, non-profit organization authorized by Congress in 2010 to fund comparative effectiveness research that will provide patients, their caregivers, and clinicians with the evidence needed to make better-informed health and healthcare decisions. PCORI is committed to seeking input from a broad range of stakeholders to guide its work.