On May 22, 2012, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute ("PCORI a private nonprofit entity established by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, announced that it will be seeking applications to fund an initial $96 million in grants for innovative research projects in clinical effectiveness research. These grants will be awarded in four areas recently identified in PCORI's National Priorities Research Agenda.

•Assessment of Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment Options – This area includes comparisons related to the effectiveness and safety of alternative health care services in order to determine which alternatives work best for people with a particular health problem.

•Improving Healthcare Systems – This area involves the comparison of health-system level approaches in access, patient self-care, health information technology, care coordination, and workforce efficiency.

•Communication and Dissemination – This area involves the comparison of approaches that improve the use of comparative effectiveness research and approaches that support shared decision-making between patients and providers.

•Addressing Disparities – This area involves identifying differences in effectiveness and outcomes among subsets of patients in order to achieve optimal outcomes in each population.