PCORI's National Priorities for Health: Our Vision for the Future

PCORI's Board of Governors has adopted five National Priorities for Health, which serve as ambitious long-term goals to guide PCORI’s funding of patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) and other engagement, dissemination and implementation, and research infrastructure initiatives.

The National Priorities for Health were developed, revised, and finalized with detailed input from numerous stakeholders, including patients and the broader healthcare community, advisors, and experts. Designed to be mutually reinforcing with complementary elements to create synergy for progress, the National Priorities for Health advance PCORI’s congressional mandate.

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A Strategic Foundation

The National Priorities for Health provide a strategic foundation for PCORI’s broader strategic plan. PCORI’s Board of Governors will next develop a Research Agenda, which will provide a framework for achieving progress on the National Priorities for Health, specifically through the strategy of funding CER. The PCORI Board of Governors expects to invite public comment on a proposed Research Agenda beginning in December.

An extensive process to gather and consider stakeholder input preceded the Board of Governors’ adoption of the National Priorities for Health. This process included a 60-day public comment period and several meetings and events that generated vital feedback reflected in the adopted priorities.

Analysis of the comments and additional public input—including discussions at three regional convenings on research and health in Colorado, Maryland, and West Virginia, as well as other meetings and events—suggested strong support for the proposed National Priorities for Health. Stakeholders asked for clarification of some conceptual points on the long-term goals for health, as well as additional information on how PCORI planned to carry out the work. In response to public and stakeholder feedback, PCORI revised the proposed National Priorities for Health for consideration by its Board of Governors. PCORI’s Board of Governors formally adopted the National Priorities for Health on October 26, 2021. The adopted National Priorities for Health and the goal each seeks to achieve are:

• Increase Evidence for Existing Interventions and Emerging Innovations in Health
  • Goal: Strengthen and expand ongoing comparative clinical effectiveness research focused on both existing interventions and emerging innovations to improve healthcare practice, health outcomes, and health equity.
• Enhance Infrastructure to Accelerate Patient-Centered Outcomes Research
  • Goal: Enhance the infrastructure that facilitates patient-centered outcomes research to drive lasting improvements in health and transformation of both the research enterprise and care delivery.
• Advance the Science of Dissemination, Implementation, and Health Communication
  • Goal: Advance the scientific evidence for and the practice of dissemination, implementation, and health communication to accelerate the effective sharing of comparative clinical effectiveness research results for public understanding and uptake into practice.
• Achieve Health Equity
  • Goal: Expand stakeholder engagement, research, and dissemination approaches that lead to continued progress toward achieving health equity in the United States.
• Accelerate Progress Toward an Integrated Learning Health System
  • Goal: Foster actionable, timely, place-based, and transformative improvements in patient-centered experiences, care provision, and ultimately improved health outcomes through collaborative, multisectoral research to support a health system that understands and serves the needs and preferences of individuals.

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Fulfilling PCORI's Congressional Mandate

Developing National Priorities for Health and Research Agenda to achieve progress on the priorities are two ways that PCORI is working to advance Congress’ mandate and fulfill the organization’s mission. PCORI is also addressing the research topics—intellectual and developmental disabilities and maternal mortality—called out in its reauthorizing law and advancing the organization’s expanded authority to consider the full range of patient-centered outcomes in the studies PCORI funds, including the burdens and economic impacts of different healthcare services.