New Report Outlines How Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute Works With Healthcare Community to Prioritize Research Questions

PCORI approach featured in Health Affairs' patient-engagement theme issue and briefing

WASHINGTON, Feb. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), in an article published in the February issue of Health Affairs, describes its process for tapping the experience of the healthcare community -- and especially of patients, caregivers, and clinicians -- in selecting topics for funding and ensuring patient involvement in the design of research projects.

PCORI seeks to benefit from the expertise of all sectors within the healthcare community in generating, prioritizing and selecting topics for research funding, write Rachael Fleurence, PhD, Acting Director of PCORI's Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Methods program, and colleagues. They describe both how this approach works and the challenges PCORI faces as it seeks to implement it.

"To meet its mission, and to have the greatest societal and health care impact, PCORI intends to prioritize and fund research that meets several key criteria, including whether the research results will be likely to change practice and whether the research addresses an important question from the perspective of patients, their caregivers and their clinicians," the authors write in the article, part of a Health Affairs theme issue on patient engagement.

PCORI was authorized by Congress in 2010 to fund studies that will provide patients and those who care for them with evidence-based information to make better-informed health care decisions. The institute is developing its research portfolio using two complementary approaches under its National Priorities for Research and Research Agenda. The first approach invites researchers to join with patients and other stakeholders in responding to broad funding announcements issued by PCORI. The second approach asks patients and stakeholders what questions matter most from their perspectives and outlines a formal process to determine which questions should be of the highest priority for PCORI funding.

Among the challenges PCORI faces in advancing its approach, the authors write, are a lack of common language and training on the part of patients, a lack of training of researchers in recognizing and addressing questions of particular importance to patients, and the difficulty of prioritizing thousands of questions for funding.

Health Affairs will hold a briefing, February 6 in Washington, DC, to discuss the theme issue and the value of patient engagement in health care and research. PCORI is a supporter of both the theme issue and the briefing. Institute Executive Director Joe Selby, MD, MPH, an author of the new article, will be among the speakers.

The article, "How The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute Is Engaging Patients And Others In Shaping Its Research Agenda," is authored by Fleurence; Selby; PCORI Scientist Kara Odom-Walker, MD, MPH, MSHS; PCORI Board member Gail Hunt; and PCORI Methodology Committee members David Meltzer, MD, PhD; Jean R. Slutsky; and Clyde Yancy, MD, MSc.

About PCORI
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) is an independent, non-profit organization authorized by Congress in 2010. Its mission is to fund research that will provide patients, their caregivers and clinicians with the evidence-based information needed to make better-informed health care decisions. PCORI is committed to continuously seeking input from a broad range of stakeholders to guide its work. More information is available at www.pcori.org.

SOURCE Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute