PCORI Seeks Applicants for Advisory Panels

Patient and stakeholder involvement is critical to the success of our work at PCORI. One of our core beliefs is that soliciting input from the entire healthcare community, and incorporating it into the research we support, will ensure that the questions we study address the outcomes that matter most to patients and those who care for them.

We’ve worked hard to put this belief into practice since we opened our doors, with activities ranging from meetings with key individuals through small-group gatherings and medium-sized workshops to a multi-stakeholder dialogue at the National Press Club that drew 800 people in person and online. As we have been going around the country with the message of engaging patients and other stakeholders in our work, people often ask “How can I get involved?”

Now, in the latest effort to fully include patients and other stakeholders in our work, we are excited to start accepting applications for participation in four new advisory panels. These panels, which will have up to 21 members each, will advise and provide recommendations to our Board of Governors, Methodology Committee, and staff to help us plan, develop, implement, and refine our efforts to build a portfolio of meaningful patient‐centered research.

Three of the panels will identify and prioritize critical research questions for possible funding initiatives under our National Priorities for Research to which they correspond:

• Advisory Panel on Assessment of Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment Options
• Advisory Panel on Improving Healthcare Systems
• Advisory Panel on Addressing Disparities

These panels also will provide ongoing feedback and advice on evaluating and disseminating the research conducted under this program.

The fourth panel we’re announcing is our Advisory Panel on Patient Engagement, which will ensure the highest standards for patient engagement and promote a culture of patient‐centeredness in all aspects of our work. This will include:

• Advising on processes to identify research topics and priorities that are important to patients;
• Advising on all aspects of stakeholder review of applications for PCORI funding;
• General recommendations to PCORI and externally on the conduct of patient-centered research;
• Advising on methods to evaluate the impact of patient engagement in research;
• Advising and assisting in communications, outreach, and dissemination of research findings.
• Advising on other questions and areas of interest that may arise relevant to our mission and work.

We will establish additional advisory panels over time, including, as and when needed, those outlined in our authorizing legislation for clinical trials and rare diseases.

At least 60 percent of the members of our patient engagement advisory panel will be patients, caregivers or representatives of patient advocacy organizations. In addition, for all of the panels we establish, we’ll be seeking a mix of backgrounds and areas of expertise that represent our diverse healthcare community. Individuals from all of our stakeholder communities – patients, caregivers, clinicians, providers, purchasers, payers, industry, policymakers and researchers – are encouraged to apply.

Advisory panel members will be selected based on experience, background, ability to contribute to the scope of work described in panel charters, and commitment to advancing PCORI’s mission. Individuals can apply for any of the panels through the PCORI website until 5 pm ET, Monday, March 4, 2013.

Since PCORI was established, we’ve been building a strong infrastructure to allow us to involve patients, caregivers and the entire healthcare community in our work in a substantive way. Establishing Advisory Panels is a natural extension of that effort and a tool we’ve been eager to implement for some time.

We are excited for this new opportunity to harness your expertise and experiences to support our goal of producing, disseminating and supporting the implementation of research that helps patients make better-informed healthcare decisions. Please join us.

Beal served as PCORI’s Deputy Executive Director and Chief Officer for Engagement from November 2011 – March 2014.