The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) has announced two grants totaling nearly $20 million in support of studies that will examine how well different treatments work in improving care for conditions that impose high burdens on patients, caregivers, and the healthcare system.

The grants include $12.7 million in support of a study by researchers in Chicago, Toronto, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, focused on the effectiveness of strategies in the treatment of anxiety and depression in expectant and new mothers. The study will examine the efficacy of different methods of providing treatment, including in-person sessions with either a specialist provider or a nurse, or the same sessions delivered via telemedicine.

The organization also awarded $7 million for a study by researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center comparing different approaches to obesity prevention in young children. As part of the study, caregivers bringing their children to scheduled pediatric visits during the first two years of the child's life will receive either health literacy education delivered by trained providers, or the same training enhanced with health information technology aimed at supporting healthy behaviors between clinic visits. The study will recruit children and families through PCORnet, the PCORI-funded National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network, as well as other sites.

"We're excited about the important patient-centered questions that these studies aim to answer," said PCORI executive director Joe Selby. "These projects are just the latest designed to provide practical information that patients, clinicians, and other stakeholders can use to make better-informed healthcare decisions."