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PCORI

Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute

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    About Us

    • Our Programs
    • Governance
    • Financials and Reports
    • Procurement Opportunities
    • Our Staff
    • Our Vision & Mission
    • Contact Us

    Fact Sheets: Learn More About PCORI

    Download fact sheets about out work, the research we fund, and our programs and initiatives.

    Find It Fast

    Browse through an alphabetical list of frequently accessed and searched terms for information and resources.

    Subscribe to PCORI Email Alerts

    Sign up for weekly emails to stay current on the latest results of our funded projects, and more.

  • Research & Results
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    Research & Results

    • Explore Our Portfolio
    • Research Fundamentals
    • Research Results Highlights
    • Putting Evidence to Work
    • Peer Review
    • Evidence Synthesis
    • About Our Research

    Evidence Updates from PCORI-Funded Studies

    These updates capture highlights of findings from systematic reviews and our funded research studies.

    Journal Articles About Our Funded Research

    Browse through a collection of journal publications that provides insights into PCORI-funded work.

    Explore Our Portfolio of Funded Projects

    Find out about projects based on the health conditions they focus on, the state they are in, and if they have results.

  • Topics
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    Topics

    • Addressing Disparities
    • Arthritis
    • Asthma
    • Cancer
    • Cardiovascular Disease
    • Children's Health
    • Community Health Workers
    • COVID-19
    • Dementia and Cognitive Impairment
    • Diabetes
    • Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities
    • Kidney Disease
    • Maternal Morbidity and Mortality
    • Medicaid
    • Men's Health
    • Mental and Behavioral Health
    • Minority Mental Health
    • Multiple Chronic Conditions
    • Multiple Sclerosis
    • Obesity
    • Older Adults' Health
    • Pain Care and Opioids
    • Rare Diseases
    • Rural Health
    • Shared Decision Making
    • Telehealth
    • Transitional Care
    • Veterans Health
    • Women's Health

    Featured Topic: Women's Health

    Learn more about the projects we support on conditions that specifically or more often affect women.

  • Engagement
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    Engagement

    • The Value of Engagement
    • Engagement in Health Research Literature Explorer
    • Influencing the Culture of Research
    • Engagement Awards
    • Engagement Resources
    • Engage with Us

    Engagement Tools and Resources for Research

    This searchable peer-to-peer repository includes resources that can inform future work in patient-centered outcomes research.

    Engagement Awards

    Learn about our Engagement Awards program and view the announcements of all our open funding opportunities.

    Research Fundamentals: A New On-Demand Training

    It enables those new to health research or patient-centered research to learn more about the research process.

  • Funding Opportunities
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    Funding Opportunities

    • What & Who We Fund
    • What You Need to Know to Apply
    • Applicant Training
    • Merit Review
    • Awardee Resources
    • Help Center

    PCORI Funding Opportunities

    View and learn about the newly opened funding announcements and the upcoming PFAs in 2021.

    Tips for Submitting a Responsive LOI

    Find out what PCORI looks for in a letter of intent (LOI) along with other helpful tips.

    PCORI Awardee Resources

    These resources can help awardees in complying with the terms and conditions of their contract.

  • Meetings & Events
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    Meetings & Events

    • Upcoming
    • Past Events

    PCORI 2021 and Beyond

    During this webinar, PCORI leaders shared ways to get involved in PCOR, improvements to our funding opportunities, and more.

    2020 PCORI Annual Meeting

    Watch recordings of sessions and view titles and descriptions of posters presented at the virtual meeting.

    Board Approves Future PFA Topics at April Meeting

    The more than a dozen high-priority research topics will be considered for PCORI Funding Announcements (PFAs) that will be released this fall and in 2022.

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  • About Us
  • Our Story

Our Story

Why PCORI Was Created

Patients, their families, and clinicians face a wide range of complex and often-confusing choices when it comes to health and healthcare concerns. They need trustworthy information to decide which treatment or other care option is best for them.

Unfortunately, traditional health research, for all the remarkable advances it produces, hasn’t been able to answer many of the questions patients and their clinicians face daily. The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), an independent nonprofit, nongovernmental organization in Washington, DC, was authorized by Congress in 2010 to close that gap.

Our mandate is to improve the quality and relevance of evidence available to help patients, caregivers, clinicians, employers, insurers, and policy makers make better-informed health decisions. To do this, we work with those healthcare stakeholders to identify critical research questions and answer them through comparative clinical effectiveness research, or CER, focusing on outcomes important to patients. We also disseminate the results in ways that members of the healthcare community will find useful.

What We Do

Since December 2012, we have funded hundreds of studies that compare healthcare options to learn which works best, given patients’ circumstances and preferences.

As the largest public research funder that focuses primarily on CER, we issue funding announcements several times each year that call for proposals for CER projects.

We include patients and other healthcare stakeholders throughout the research process, so the resulting evidence will address their most important questions and concerns. We also provide awards to encourage engagement of patients and other healthcare stakeholders in CER. 

In addition, as directed by our authorizing law, we fund research to develop and improve CER methods. We know methods matter when it comes to producing valid and trustworthy information that will lead to better healthcare decisions and, ultimately, improved patient outcomes.

What Drives Our Work

Our mandate and mission are broad and complex, but in our Strategic Plan, we outline three overarching goals.

  • Substantially increase the quantity, quality, and timeliness of useful, trustworthy information available to support health decisions
  • Speed the implementation and use of patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) evidence
  • Influence clinical and healthcare research funded by others to be more patient-centered

Learn more

Find out more about how we evaluate our work on funding comparative clinical effectiveness research here.

Supporting these goals are five mutually reinforcing imperatives.

  • Engagement: Engage patients, caregivers, and all other stakeholders in our entire research process, from topic generation to dissemination and implementation of results
  • Methods: Develop and promote rigorous patient-centered outcomes research methods, standards, and best practices
  • Research: Fund a comprehensive agenda of high-quality patient-centered outcomes research and evaluate its impact
  • Dissemination and Implementation: Disseminate patient-centered outcomes research to all stakeholders and support its uptake and implementation
  • Infrastructure: Promote and facilitate the development of a sustainable infrastructure for conducting patient-centered outcomes research

Learn more

Underlying everything we do is a set of core values.

  • Patient-Centeredness: Patients are our true north: we rely on patient perspectives and values to guide and improve our work.
  • Usefulness: We focus on funding research that provides actionable answers to questions that are important to patients and the healthcare community.
  • Transparency: We work in the open and facilitate public access to build trust, encourage participation, and promote implementation.
  • Inclusiveness: We study broad patient populations and seek to provide evidence that is tailored to patients’ demographic or clinical characteristics and their preferences.
  • Evidence: We consistently rely on the best available science and we evaluate our work to improve its reliability and utility.

Learn more

We welcome your involvement in our work, participating as a researcher or a healthcare stakeholder, either on a research team or in other PCORI activities.


Posted: September 10, 2014; Updated: March 30, 2021

About Us

  • Our Programs
  • Governance
  • Financials and Reports
  • Procurement Opportunities
  • Our Staff
  • Our Vision & Mission
  • Contact Us

Research & Results

  • Explore Our Portfolio
  • Research Fundamentals
  • Research Results Highlights
  • Putting Evidence to Work
  • Peer Review
  • Evidence Synthesis
  • About Our Research

Engagement

  • The Value of Engagement
  • Engagement in Health Research Literature Explorer
  • Influencing the Culture of Research
  • Engagement Awards
  • Engagement Resources
  • Engage with Us

Funding Opportunities

  • What & Who We Fund
  • What You Need to Know to Apply
  • Applicant Training
  • Merit Review
  • Awardee Resources
  • Help Center

Meetings & Events

April 19
Increasing Vaccine Confidence among Long-Term Care Workers: Expedited COVID-19 PFA -- Applicant Town Hall
May 6
Advisory Panel on Healthcare Delivery and Disparities Research Spring 2021 Meeting
May 10
Cycle 2 2021 Nonsurgical Options for Women with Urinary Incontinence -- Applicant Town Hall

PCORI

Footer contact address

Patient-Centered Outcomes
Research Institute

1828 L Street, NW, Suite 900
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: (202) 827-7700 | Fax: (202) 355-9558
info@pcori.org

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