Program Overview
Under the auspices of our Research, Data, and Technology unit, PCORI funds a national resource for patient-centered health research called PCORnet®.
PCORnet is a national resource where high-quality health data, patient partnership and research expertise deliver fast, trustworthy answers that advance health outcomes. PCORnet is designed to improve the nation’s capacity to conduct patient-centered health research—particularly comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) —efficiently, and to learn from the health care experiences of millions of people to allow for large-scale research to be conducted with enhanced accuracy and efficiency.
PCORnet is a "network of networks" consisting of eight Clinical Research Networks (CRNs) supported by PCORI. CRNs consist of two or more health care systems, including hospitals, integrated delivery systems and federally qualified health centers. There are more than forty health systems participating in PCORnet through the CRNs. The CRNs transform data gathered from routine patient care across their participating health systems to a consistent format, the PCORnet Common Data Model (CDM), to enable rapid response to research-related questions. The Coordinating Center for PCORnet maintains the PCORnet CDM and serves as a central hub for the Network, bringing the diverse PCORnet networks, institutions and patients together through shared communications, meetings and initiatives.
This broad infrastructure can support researchers conducting large observational studies that include clinical and patient-reported outcomes as well as large, pragmatic clinical trials embedded within participating systems.
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PCORI has invested more than $460 million in infrastructure funding for PCORnet in a phased approach. Previous phases of PCORI funding have supported infrastructure planning (Phase 1) and infrastructure implementation and capacity building (Phase 2).
For the current phase (Phase 3), the PCORI Board of Governors developed and approved the Prioritizing Principles for Infrastructure Funding Relating to PCORnet in 2021 to guide decision making about PCORI infrastructure funding for the optimization of PCORnet. Aligned with these principles, in Phase 3 of PCORnet this “network of networks” is intended to optimize its capacity to serve as a national resource for conducting rapid, efficient, patient-centered CER that improves health care delivery and health outcomes.
Building upon the prioritizing principles, in 2022 the PCORI Board of Governors approved the Strategies to Leverage PCORnet to Advance PCORI’s National Priorities for Health and Evaluate PCORnet Performance, which sets forth a framework to leverage PCORnet assets for the advancement of PCORI strategic priorities and to inform PCORI’s ongoing evaluation of PCORnet.
Impact
PCORnet Network Partners use visual metric tracking or a "dashboard" for evaluating progress in serving as a national resource to support multi-network, patient-centered observational and interventional research.
Posted: December 16, 2013; Updated: June 1, 2023
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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