The PCORI blog is intended to serve as a platform for discussion by a broad range of audiences of issues in patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) and ways to help patients, caregivers, and clinicians make better-informed health and healthcare decisions. The views expressed in blog postings, including comments, are those of the authors and not necessarily those of PCORI, its Board of Governors, or its committees, unless otherwise indicated.

The blog's editor is Lila Guterman, PCORI’s Associate Director of Content Development. She can be reached at lguterman@pcori.org.

Posting Comments to the Blog

We welcome comments from all readers interested in our work; however, in posting a comment, you agree to abide by the following terms and conditions in addition to those in the Terms of Use:

• Comments must be on topic, courteous, and respectful. Comments must not contain any inappropriate language, personal attacks, or information known or likely to be confidential or false.
• Do not post any comments that (a) violate another person’s copyrights, privacy rights, publicity rights, or other intellectual property rights; (b) are unlawful, threatening, hateful, harassing, libelous, defamatory, obscene, inflammatory, pornographic, profane, or otherwise objectionable or offensive; (c) are false, misleading, fraudulent, or inaccurate, or contain gross exaggerations or unsubstantiated claims; (d) could constitute or encourage conduct that would be considered a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any law; (e) advertise, promote, or solicit goods or services for commercial purposes; or (f) are otherwise inconsistent with the Terms of Use.
• All comments will be reviewed by the blog’s editor before they are posted. PCORI retains the right to post or not post comments and to remove comments that are not consistent with this Comment Policy or the Terms of Use. The editor’s decision on posting is final.
• To post a comment, you must use your real name and include your email address. We will publish your name with your comment. It is our policy not to publish your email address. Please do not include your email address, phone number, or other personal information in the text of your comment.
• Authors of articles that are the subject of reader comments will be notified of a pending comment so that they have an opportunity to respond.
• Comments should be limited to 150 words and may be lightly edited for grammar, spelling, syntax, and style.
• The blog editor or other appropriate PCORI staff will make every effort to respond to as many comments as possible, but we regret that we won’t be able to provide individual responses in all cases.

Using Blog Content

By posting a comment to the blog, you agree that we may use your comment as described in the Terms of Use.

We encourage you to link to and use blog content in accordance with the Terms of Use. When linking to and using blog content, you must include full attribution to the PCORI blog and a direct link to the original post. Please contact the blog editor if you would like to repost any blog content.

Posted: August 31, 2014; Updated: January 4, 2018