WASHINGTON, DC—The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) has launched the public comment period on its proposed Research Agenda. The Research Agenda will provide the framework for PCORI’s future funding of comparative clinical effectiveness research and other research initiatives. PCORI will accept public comments on the Research Agenda through January 31, 2022, through its website.

PCORI’s proposed Research Agenda stems from the five National Priorities for Health adopted by the Board of Governors in October of this year. The National Priorities and the proposed Research Agenda both reflect extensive input from stakeholders across the U.S. health care ecosystem and build on PCORI’s work in its first decade.

“The development of our proposed Research Agenda is a critical next step in PCORI’s comprehensive strategic planning process,” said Board Chairperson Christine Goertz, Ph.D. “We look forward to finalizing this agenda and then using it to guide PCORI’s work as the nation’s leading funder of patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research.”

The proposed Research Agenda states PCORI will fund research in the following six areas of focus:

• Research that fills patient- and stakeholder-prioritized evidence gaps and is representative of diverse patient populations and settings
• Research that aims to achieve health equity and eliminate health and health care disparities
• Research that builds the evidence base for emerging interventions by leveraging the full range of data resources and partnership
• Research that examines the diverse burdens and clinical and economic impacts important to patients and other stakeholders
• Research that focuses on health promotion and illness prevention by addressing health drivers that occur where people live, work, learn, and play
• Research that integrates implementation science and that advances approaches for communicating evidence so the public can access, understand and act on research findings

More details on the types of projects that could be included in each area of focus are available on PCORI’s website. The Research Agenda is not intended to specify individual research topics or projects. That work is a part of the Research Project Agenda, which will be derived via an ongoing stakeholder-engaged process and is continuously updated to ensure it remains relevant to the evidence needs of the patients and stakeholders PCORI serves.

“Since its establishment, PCORI has played a unique role in health research by funding studies comparing which prevention, diagnostic and treatment approaches work best for whom, given their circumstances and preferences,” said PCORI Executive Director Nakela L. Cook, M.D., M.P.H. “We look forward to hearing from our stakeholders as we chart PCORI’s future to be an even stronger leader in the health research enterprise, focused on generating evidence that provides practical, dependable and trustworthy information to support informed decisions about health and health care.”

Comments on PCORI’s proposed Research Agenda are welcome in English and Spanish. PCORI also will accept input via voiceover IP or email to [email protected]. Read more about the Research Agenda and how to submit comments or input on PCORI’s website.