What is PCORI?
PCORI is the leading funder of patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research in the United States.
Your Guide to PCORI’s Collaborative Research Approach. Access crucial information on PCORI’s mission, meeting guidelines, and project structures specific to the PARTNER roadmap. Equip yourself with insights into our cooperative methodology, fostering a deeper understanding of how we drive patient-centered outcomes through meaningful partnerships.
What is Patient-Centered Outcomes Research?
What They Do
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) is an independent, nonprofit research organization that seeks to empower patients and others with actionable information about their health and healthcare choices. We fund comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER), which compares two or more medical treatments, services, or health practices to help patients and other stakeholders make better informed decisions.
PCORI’s unique place in the health research landscape stems from its unwavering focus on outcomes that matter to patients and it is widely acknowledged as a leader in driving US clinical research to become more patient-centered. We are committed to ensuring that patients and other healthcare stakeholders have a seat at the table throughout the research process—helping to prioritize research topics, design and conduct the studies, and share the results.
The vast majority of the research that PCORI funds is for CER projects, but we also fund awards to promote engagement in research, dissemination and implementation projects, methodology research, and the development of research infrastructure, including PCORnet®, the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network. We issue PCORI Funding Announcements several times each year.
Impact
Research funded by PCORI concentrates on healthcare challenges that confront families every day, including cancer, diabetes, maternal mortality, opioid addiction, mental health, and equitable access to care, among many others. Patients deserve to know whether some approaches work better than others for certain populations, and caregivers, clinicians, and all of our stakeholders also benefit from better information about different care options. With health, information is power, and PCORI funds research that allows all patients to become more empowered decision makers.
Since its authorization by Congress in 2010, PCORI has awarded more than $3 billion to fund nearly 2,000 research and related projects (explore our research portfolio). PCORI-funded research studies produce important results that are published in leading medical journals and presented at major scientific meetings. Results from studies we have funded are also taken up in a variety of clinical guidelines. We post results from every study we fund, with versions for both patients and clinicians.
Research Done Differently®
Our strategic plan reflects PCORI’s holistic approach to generating and promoting the use of patient-centered evidence, which is at the heart of what we do. There are four essential elements to this approach:
- Funding of patient-centered CER—to address questions important to patients and other stakeholders and to generate meaningful evidence that will allow them to make better informed health and healthcare decisions.
- Engagement—involving patients and all key health decision makers across the continuum of PCORI’s work, from research topic selection to dissemination and implementation of results, to produce research findings that are useful, relevant, and trustworthy to those we serve.
- Dissemination and Implementation—to ensure that the results of PCORI-funded studies are easily accessible and can be used by those who need them to make better informed decisions on health and healthcare.
- Research Infrastructure—including enhancing the ability of PCORnet® to improve capacity to conduct clinical research more efficiently, improving the science and methods of CER, and supporting the continuing development of the health research workforce.
Through this holistic approach, we will build on the lessons of our work to date, broaden our network of engaged stakeholders and partners, and remain responsive to the changing health landscape to help address health and healthcare challenges facing the nation.
