Health Research Office

The Health Research Office was created to administer and manage the Chapter 9 Commonwealth Universal Research Enhancement (CURE) of the Tobacco Settlement Act 77 of 2001. This Act provides funding for formula and non-formula research grants. Act 77 of 2001 requires the creation of the Health Research Advisory Committee and the Spinal Cord Research Advisory Committee, both coordinated by the Health Research Office.

Additional research grants administered and managed by the Health Research Office are Act 133 of 2004 and Act 39 of 2017 required Juvenile Diabetes Cure Research Fund and the Act 73 of 2018 required Pediatric Cancer Research fund.

Act 2004-133 created the Juvenile Diabetes Cure Research Fund. Contributions from tax refunds and the public provide the funds for these grants.

Act 2017-39 and Act 2018-73 created the Pediatric Cancer Research Fund. Contributions from tax refunds and contributions when renewing a driver's license and vehicle registration provide the funds for these grants.

The administrator for the Department of Health Institutional Review Board (IRB) is located in the Health Research Office and coordinates the meetings and maintains the SharePoint site for the IRB. Any questions pertaining to the IRB should be directed to the ra-dhirb@pa.gov resource account,

Clinical cancer trial research is the focus of the Cancer Trial Access for Pennsylvania Patients which is coordinated in the Health Research Office.

Cancer Trial Access for Pennsylvania Patients

On October 24, 2018, Governor Wolf signed Act 93 into law. The law mandates that a third-party nonprofit corporation or public charity that specializes in assisting cancer patients and increasing enrollment, retention and minority participation in cancer clinical trials register with a Department of Health-approved Pennsylvania college or university with a school of public health. In addition, third party entities shall update their registration annually (prior to July 1).

Drexel University has been designated by the Department of Health to manage the registration process of third-party entities per the requirements of Act 93.  If you are a third-party reimbursement entity that is required to register under law, please click this link to begin the registration process: https://drexel.edu/ogcr/govt-affairs/state/Opens In A New Window

Contact Us

Pennsylvania Department of Health
Health Research Office
Health and Welfare Building, Room 833
625 Forster Street
Harrisburg, PA 17120-0701
717-547-3103
Ra-healthresearch@pa.gov

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