Primary care studies are underfunded by federal research institute, study says

The majority of patients in the U.S. get treated in primary care settings, yet a new analysis finds that a major federal research program only funds a minority of studies focused on primary care. Researchers looked at 250 studies funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, which was created as part of the ACA in 2010 and is tasked with supporting research to help patients make better decisions about health care. Between 2015 and 2018, roughly 1 in 4 PCORI-funded trials focused on primary care. This translated to more than twice as much money given to non-primary care research than to that for primary care. "If the mission is to help guide patients through issues that have the greatest impact upon them, then PCORI is funneling substantial grant money where it shouldn't be," Dan Merenstein, one of the authors of the study, said in a statement.

Correction: An item in yesterday’s newsletter on narrative evaluations for third-year medical students incorrectly stated how minority medical students were evaluated. This group of students is less likely to be evaluated using descriptors of their personal attributes than their non-minority peers.