The purpose of this Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) is to improve health outcomes for individuals with deafness or communication disorders through effectiveness and health services research in the NIDCD mission areas of hearing, balance, smell, taste, voice, speech and language.

NIDCD effectiveness research seeks to measure, evaluate and/or improve patient-centered outcomes following intervention for communication disorders. Effectiveness research seeks to determine to what degree an intervention works in patients/populations in general, real-world settings, such as in diverse populations and diverse provider and clinical practice settings. Research outcomes are usually broader in range than typical patient-oriented research studies and include an expanded assessment of outcomes compared to traditional clinical research metrics. For example, an outcomes study would measure functional status, well-being, quality of life, cost, health care resource use, etc., (as opposed to/or in conjunction with traditional clinical metrics such as measures of language, or speech discrimination in noise). Effectiveness research typically employs broader inclusion criteria and has fewer restrictions for participation than traditional clinical study/clinical trial/efficacy research performed under a tightly controlled research setting. Effectiveness research addresses patient-centered outcomes in practice-relevant environments, focuses on quality of life, patient experience of and satisfaction with health care, and the social and economic consequences of care. It may include evaluation of economic impacts linked to health outcomes, and may be performed at either the patient or population level, or both.

Health Services Research examines the impact of the organization, financing, and management of health care services on the delivery, quality, cost, access to and outcomes of such services, including demographic, social, economic, and health system factors as they relate to providing preventive, screening, diagnostic, treatment and rehabilitative services and patient outcomes of care. Research may focus on any/all of the different factors that impact access, utilization, and quality as related to outcomes of health care services. Variations in care (e.g., ethnic, cultural, provider, geographic based) are also considered. The structure, processes, and outcomes of health services are evaluated in order to determine the degree to which individuals receiving health care services actually experience measurable benefits. (http://www.hsrd.research.va.gov/funding/what-is-hsr.cfm)

Dissemination and Implementation Research seeks to understand how health information and scientifically based clinical practices are/are not adopted in a variety of settings. This includes research on health promotion and approaches to increase use of evidence-based guidelines by both individuals and health care providers. These studies focus on implementing research findings into practice. Individuals interested in applying for research support in Implementation and Dissemination Research should apply under the NIDCD-participating FOA PAR-19-274 "Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health (R01)" .

There is substantial overlap among the above-mentioned research areas and all require collaborative multidisciplinary investigations. Applicants are encouraged to create collaborative teams which may include clinical experts not only in the traditional NIDCD mission areas, but also in other medical specialties and health care professions as well as experts in sociology, health services, health outcomes, economics, biostatistics, public health, health care financing and organization, survey research, psychometrics, epidemiology, and evaluation.

This notice applies to due dates on or after June 16, 2020 and subsequent receipt dates through January 10 2022.

NOT-DC-20-007