Pfizer Global Medical Grants (GMG) supports the global healthcare community’s independent initiatives (e.g., research, quality improvement, or education) to improve patient outcomes in areas of unmet medical need that are aligned with Pfizer’s medical and/or scientific strategies. One such strategic priority is decreasing the disproportionate burden of poor health outcomes faced by patients with lower socioeconomic status and / or from underserved populations, who receive healthcare in resource-limited centers within high-income countries, specifically to address health inequities relating to treatment of infectious diseases.
Global Bridges Healthcare Alliance, based at Mayo Clinic, is dedicated to supporting global communities of practice to advance evidence-based patient care. Since 2014, Global Bridges has worked collaboratively with Pfizer GMG to support medical education and quality improvement programs in multiple clinical areas, including tobacco dependence treatment, oncology, amyloidosis, and anti-microbial stewardship.
The purpose of this RFP is to solicit programs that have identified a disparity related to socioeconomic factors (such as race, culture, gender, and age) within resourcelimited healthcare centers that disproportionately impacts appropriate antimicrobial use (antimicrobial stewardship) for that socioeconomic population, and that propose an intervention to address the disparity, to improve measurable patient outcomes for these underserved patient communities.
Inappropriate use of antibiotics results in adverse events (including death), increased microbiological resistance, and wasted resources.
Patients in disadvantaged socioeconomic groups are more likely to be prescribed inappropriate antibiotics to treat their infections. Studies found that inappropriate use of antibiotics was associated with the following factors: culture, gender, educational status, marital status, age, number of children, health insurance and poor health care services.
Even in high-income countries, patients with lower socioeconomic status may not have equitable access to appropriate antimicrobial therapy because of the lack of adequate and effective antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programs in their local healthcare facilities. As a result, these patients may receive suboptimal care reflective of racial and socioeconomic inequalities negatively impacting their outcomes and the cost of care.
Proposal due date: Dec. 15, 2021
Geographic Scope: USA, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand
• Only organizations are eligible to receive grants, not individuals or medical practice groups.
• Institution must be part of a network of hospitals or institutions to ensure dissemination of learnings/best practice and to achieve broadest impact.
• The Project Lead must have a medical or postdoctoral degree (MD, PhD, or equivalent), an advanced nursing degree (BSN with a MS/PhD or Doctorate of Nursing Practice), or a degree in Pharmacy, Microbiology or Epidemiology.
Individual projects requesting up to $50,000-$100,000 USD will be considered. The estimated total available budget related to this RFP is $400,000 USD.