MIAMI — Miami Children’s Health System (MCHS) has joined the University of Florida (UF), University of Miami and Florida State University as well as health care systems, health plans, providers and patients to support patient-centered health care research throughout Florida and the nation. The statewide partnership, called the OneFlorida Clinical Research Consortium, is one of the 13 research collaboratives throughout the U.S. to have joined the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network, also known as PCORnet. The Florida network was approved for a three-year, $7.9 million funding award by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to support this research initiative.  PCORnet links researchers, patient communities, clinicians and health systems in research partnerships that involve large volumes of health data.

The partnership will enable researchers nationwide to conduct clinical research more quickly and less expensively than is now possible and will ensure that research focuses on the outcomes that matter most to patients and their caregivers. These 13 clinical data research networks, which includes the Miami Children’s Research Institute on the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital campus as part of OneFlorida, are working together to accelerate the translation of promising research findings to improve patient care.

Dr. Jennifer McCafferty-Fernandez, PhD, Director of the Miami Children’s Research Institute said “Our health system recognized the immense opportunity that this collaborative affords to leverage new care options and better outcomes for the children of South Florida and beyond. As champions for the children it is our duty to contribute and collaborate on the advancement of pediatric research nationwide.”

This data access will allow researchers to conduct studies more efficiently, reaching more study participants and identifying relevant data more quickly. OneFlorida initially will focus on high blood pressure, obesity, and two rare genetic diseases, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and Phelan-McDermid Syndrome.

The Florida consortium is made up of 22 hospitals, 914 clinical practices and 4,100 physicians, providing care for close to 40 percent of Floridians. The UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute is leading development of the consortium and will coordinate the funding award.

The funding award to the OneFlorida Clinical Research Consortium has been approved by PCORI’s Board pending completion of a business and programmatic review by PCORI staff and negotiation of a formal award contract. PCORI is an independent, nonprofit organization authorized by Congress in 2010 to fund research that will provide patients, their caregivers and clinicians with the evidence-based information they need to make better-informed health care decisions. PCORI is committed to continuously seeking input from a broad range of stakeholders to guide its work. More information is available at www.pcori.org.

About Miami Children’s Health System
Founded in 1950 by Variety Clubs International, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital – part of Miami Children’s Health System is South Florida’s only licensed specialty hospital exclusively for children, with more than 650 attending physicians and over 130 pediatric sub-specialists. The 289-bed nonprofit hospital is renowned for excellence in all aspects of pediatric medicine and routinely has many programs ranked among the nation’s best by U.S. News & World Report. The organization has grown and evolved into the Miami Children's Health System (MCHS) which includes Miami Children's Health Foundation, the organization's 501c3 fundraising arm; a network of eight nonprofit outpatient centers situated in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties; Pediatric Specialty Group, Inc., a nonprofit physician practice subsidiary;  a management services organization, and an ambulatory surgery center, as well as an e-commerce line of children's wellness and safety products that support the hospital's mission of serving the region’s pediatric population. MCHS is the region’s only healthcare system exclusively for children.