The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute has approved a $1.6 million research award to the Children's Discovery and Innovation Institute at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA to study the use of videoconferencing technology to deliver behavioral health services to pediatric patients in community primary care settings.

Tumaini R. Coker, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at UCLA, will lead the research. The project will focus on the integration of developmental, behavioral, and mental health services into pediatric primary care using live videoconferencing technology. The study will examine whether using this telehealth technology can be an effective, efficient, and family-centered way to provide integrated services to children in low-income communities.

"One of the key strengths of the project will be the emphasis on the partnership between UCLA researchers, the community clinics and the families to develop and test this strategy to bring behavioral health services into the primary care setting using live videoconferencing visits," Coker said in a news release.

The project brings together UCLA researchers from general pediatrics, developmental and behavioral pediatrics, child and adolescent psychiatry, the UCLA/RAND Prevention Research Center and the UCLA Center for Health Services and Society to work in partnership with a large multi-site community clinic consortium.

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The study is part of a portfolio of patient-centered research that addresses PCORI's national research priorities and will provide patients with information to help them make better-informed decisions about their care.

"This project reflects PCORI's commitment to support patient-centered comparative effectiveness research, a new approach to health research that emphasizes the inclusion of patients and caregivers at all stages of the study process," added Joe Selby, MD, executive director of PCORI. "The research will provide patients and those who care for them better information about the healthcare decisions they face."

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The UCLA study is one of 51 projects totaling more than $88.5 million approved for funding by PCORI's board of governors on May 6. All were selected through a competitive review process in which scientists, patients, caregivers, and other stakeholders helped to evaluate more than 400 applications for funding., according to PCORI. Proposals were evaluated on the basis of scientific merit, how well they engage patients and other stakeholders, their methodological rigor, and how well they fit within PCORI's national research priorities.