The Health Care Horizon Scanning System provides a systematic process to identify healthcare interventions that have high potential to alter the current standard of care.
The PCORI Health Care Horizon Scanning System (HCHSS) conducts horizon scanning of new and emerging health care technologies and innovations with high potential for disruption to the current standard of care to better inform patient-centered outcomes research investments at PCORI.
The HCHSS provides PCORI with a systematic process to identify and monitor technologies and innovations in health care that are in PCORI’s priority areas of interest and to create an inventory of interventions that have the highest potential for disruption to the current standard of care in terms of patient outcomes, health disparities, care delivery, infrastructure, access, and/or costs. It will also be a tool for the public to identify information on selected new health care technologies and interventions. Any investigator or funder of research will be able to use the PCORI HCHSS to help select research topics.
The PCORI HCHSS produces quarterly Status Reports, which summarize key data elements for all topics currently monitored in the system and, if applicable, topics archived since the last Status Report.
- June 2020—This report summarizes key data elements for 268 topics and 47 trends currently monitored in the Health Care Horizon Scanning System as well as topics and trends archived since the last edition. This document is organized into six sections: Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, mental and behavioral health, rare diseases, and potentially disruptive trends.
- March 2020—This report summarizes key data elements for 247 topics and 28 trends currently monitored in the Health Care Horizon Scanning System as well as topics and trends archived since the last edition. This document is organized into six sections, one for each of the five initial PCORI-defined priority areas and one section for potentially disruptive trends. The priority areas are Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, mental and behavioral health, and rare diseases.
- December 2019—This report features 247 topics representing 135 diseases and conditions that span the PCORI-defined priority areas. The conditions include Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, mental and behavioral health, and rare diseases. The priority areas represent several therapeutic classes, including biotechnology, devices, and pharmaceuticals. The report also discusses trends related to artificial intelligence, machine learning, proteomics, genomics, personalized medicine, and health information technology.
- September 2019—This report features 224 topics representing 123 diseases and conditions that span the PCORI-defined priority areas. The conditions include Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, mental and behavioral health, and rare diseases. The priority areas represent several therapeutic classes, including biotechnology, device, implant, and pharmaceutical. The report also discusses trends related to artificial intelligence, machine learning, proteomics, genomics, and personalized medicine.
- June 2019—This report features topics representing 93 diseases or conditions and PCORI-defined priority areas. The diseases or conditions include Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and mental and behavioral health. The priority areas represent several therapeutic classes, including biotechnology, device, implant, and pharmaceutical.
- March 2019—This report features topics representing 50 diseases or conditions and PCORI-defined priority areas. The diseases or conditions include Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and mental and behavioral health. The priority areas represent several therapeutic classes, including biotechnology, device, implant, and pharmaceutical.
Individuals with vested interests in new technologies, services, and innovations typically provide critical insights and information about the areas in which they have a vested interest. Their perspectives may include their vision and plans for how they intend to carry out adoption of a technology, service, or innovation. Twice a year, analysts review all topics for which stakeholder comments have been received in the previous 15 months.
- May 2020—This report discusses topics (such as, interventions intended for a specific use within a specific patient population) and trends (including high-level disruptions occurring within or across clinical areas from a combination of factors that, taken together, create a paradigm shift) that have been identified by stakeholders and the horizon scanning team as having high potential to cause disruption to health care.
- November 2019—This report includes topics and trends identified by stakeholders and the horizon scanning team as having high potential to cause disruption to health care. These topics represent diseases and conditions that span PCORI’s priority areas, including Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, mental and behavioral health, rare diseases, and other related topics.
- May 2019—Based on stakeholder rationales and ratings, analysts in this report nominate topics to be included that they have deemed to have the highest potential for disruption.
This document outlines the basic protocol and decision processes used to scan for leads, select interventions and trends for monitoring, and identify interventions in each priority area and trends across all clinical areas with high potential to cause disruption to health care in the United States.
In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic created a fast-moving, widespread public health crisis. In May 2020, PCORI expanded the HCHSS to elucidate the landscape of potentially impactful applications for COVID-19. The HCHSS COVID-19 supplement scans for, identifies, monitors, and reports on emerging and available COVID-19-related treatments, diagnostics, preventive measures, management strategies, and systems changes with potential for high impact to patient outcomes—for individuals and populations—in the United States in the next 12 months.
Horizon Scanning Protocol and Operations Manual - COVID-19 Supplement
This document supplements the PCORI HCHSS Protocol and Operations Manual by describing the horizon scanning process related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of the PCORI HCHSS COVID-19 supplement is not to predict future utilization and costs of any health care innovation; rather, it is intended to help inform and guide planning and prioritization of research resources.
The Status Reports summarize key data elements for all COVID-19 topics monitored in the PCORI Health Care Horizon Scanning System and, if applicable, recently archived topics. Each report is organized into six sections: devices, identifiable risk factors and prognostic indicators, screening and diagnostics, systems and management, treatments, and vaccines and prophylaxis. The report is published every three months.
High Impact Reports highlight topics that stakeholders (including physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, public health professionals, first responders, health systems experts, clinical engineers, researchers, as well as business, finance, and information technology professionals) have identified as having potential for high impact relative to COVID-19 in the United States. The reports are published every four months.
Posted: June 11, 2019; Updated: October 26, 2020