PCORI is moving toward greater specificity in the research it will fund

October 22, 2012

A new Health Affairs Blog post details how - via two "complementary but equally critical paths" that will build a "robust portfolio of patient-centered outcomes research that will address the unmet needs of patients, caregivers, clinicians and other health care stakeholders."   PCORI Executive Director Joe Selby, MD, MPH, and PCORI staff scientist Rachael Fleurence, PhD, describe each path, one a broad "investigator-initiated" funding process and the other a more directed "patient- and stakeholder-initiated" approach.   The first, launched when we issued our first broad PCORI Funding announcements in May, "leverages the broad research community's wisdom, but brings patients and stakeholders into the process by requiring they be included as meaningful part of research teams and including them in the application review process."   But recognizing that this approach could miss important questions that matter to patients, Selby and Fleurence note, PCORI initiated the second approach, which "directly involves patients and other stakeholders in generating questions that address specific problems identified as having a significant impact on them and the health care system as a whole."   You can link to the complete blog post from the  PCORI Blog on our website.   Tell us what you think of our plans for "getting specific" by posting a comment on the PCORI Blog.   About PCORI The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) is an independent, non-profit organization authorized by Congress. 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.