About Us

When patients, clinicians, or other healthcare stakeholders raise a question that doesn’t already have an evidence-based answer, sometimes the dilemma can be best addressed with a new research study. But not always. In some cases, a careful look at results and data from already-completed research studies can more quickly provide reliable findings that patients and those who care for them can use.

A new PCORI initiative—our Evidence Synthesis Initiative—will take that approach, which our authorizing law calls on us to pursue. The program will include rigorous reviews of the best evidence available on topics of critical concern to patients and other healthcare stakeholders. The goal is to synthesize all relevant completed studies on a particular clinical question in order to provide evidence that is stronger and more certain than the results of each individual study. Under this initiative, we will also fund projects that reanalyze data from already-completed studies to discover which specific groups of patients gain the most or least benefit, or, conversely, are at greater risk for harms from an intervention. And once we have synthesized the evidence, we will disseminate it through products designed to meet the needs of our various stakeholders.

This initiative is the latest that we at PCORI have undertaken as part of our mission to make authoritative, relevant, useful information from comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) available to help patients and those who care for them make better-informed healthcare decisions. It complements the hundreds of patient-centered research studies we’ve funded comparing how well different care options work, and for whom, given patients’ needs, circumstances, and preferences.

What's Happening at PCORI?

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute sends weekly emails about opportunities to apply for funding, newly funded research studies and engagement projects, results of our funded research, webinars, and other new information posted on our site.

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