PCORI Welcomes New AHRQ Director Richard Kronick to Its Board of Governors

For Immediate Release
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute 

Washington, D.C. (August 20, 2013) – The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute today welcomed Richard Kronick, PhD, newly named Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), to PCORI’s Board of Governors. PCORI also thanked outgoing AHRQ Director Carolyn Clancy, MD, for her service as a Board member.

AHRQ’s director serves as a member of PCORI’s Board of Governors as stipulated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which authorized PCORI’s establishment. The director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) serves as a Board member as well. As announced by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on August 19, Kronick will succeed Clancy when she departs later this month. Clancy announced her decision to step down earlier this year, but agreed to continue in the position until a successor was named. Kronick joined HHS in January 2010 as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation and oversaw the Office of Health Policy. Prior to that, he was a health policy researcher at the University of California, San Diego. He also worked as director of policy and reimbursement for the Medicaid Division of the Massachusetts Department of Public Welfare.

“With his background and expertise in areas such as the use of 'big data' for health research, evidence-based care, health care financing, and barriers impeding access to quality care, Dr. Kronick will bring valuable insights to our Board,” said PCORI Executive Director Joe Selby, MD, MPH. “We look forward to working with Rick to forge a PCORI research agenda that complements AHRQ’s contributions and a dissemination strategy that we’ll implement in partnership with the agency.” PCORI Board Chair Eugene Washington, MD, MSc, who recently announced his intention to step down from that position and leave PCORI’s Board at the end of 2013, expressed PCORI’s “deep gratitude” to Clancy for her three years of service to PCORI.

“Dr. Clancy has been an active, vital, and valued member of PCORI’s Board and its Program Development Committee since they were established in 2010,” Washington said. “She played an essential role in the development of PCORI’s first set of national priorities for research, helping to effectively incorporate the perspectives of PCORI’s multi-stakeholder Board and the broader healthcare community. In addition, Carolyn’s wise counsel on data infrastructure and dissemination has helped ensure that PCORI’s work is responsive to and complementary of existing efforts in the research community.”
 

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.