Does PCORI only fund projects that have a broad impact? Would PCORI consider research in a rare disease to have a broad impact?

PCORI's authorizing legislation includes a special emphasis on research for rare diseases.

Further, rare disease research often can have a broad impact. Findings from CER on a single rare disease may be applicable to other rare diseases or groups of patients experiencing the same decisional dilemma.

An example of this is PCORI's sickle cell disease transitions in care studies. While these studies specifically focus on the transition of patients with sickle cell disease from a pediatric to adult care provider, this project has a broad applicability beyond only the sickle cell disease community. This type of transition is common to young adult patients with and without a rare disease.