PCORI's Board of Governors approves 34 new members to multi-stakeholder advisory panels

WASHINGTON, DC — The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Board of Governors yesterday approved proposed slates with a total of 34 people to serve on PCORI’s five multi-stakeholder advisory panels for three-year terms. Panelists were chosen from 235 nominees. In addition, the Board approved the appointments of current advisory panel members to serve as chairs and co-chairs for four advisory panels.

PCORI’s advisory panels provide recommendations to PCORI’s Board, Methodology Committee and staff to help plan, develop, implement, improve and refine the organization’s patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) funding and engagement efforts. They are vital to PCORI’s ongoing work to ensure that patients and other health care decision makers provide substantive input into PCORI’s research funding and other activities.

“We are extremely gratified that a wide range of members of the health, research and health care community are eager to serve on PCORI’s advisory panels,” said PCORI Executive Director Nakela L. Cook, M.D., MPH. “Following a robust selection process to support a balance of perspectives on PCORI’s panels, we are pleased to welcome the newest members. Their experiences, knowledge and perspectives will help ensure PCORI’s funding of patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research continues to be scientifically rigorous and centered on what matters most to patients and health care decision makers.”

“We are grateful for the service of advisory panel members who have completed their terms,” Cook added. “We recognize their invaluable contributions to PCORI and hope to continue collaborating in service of PCORI’s mission.”

The new panelists bring a rich and varied range of perspectives and experience to their role with PCORI. They include patients, patient advocates, caregivers, researchers, clinicians and representatives of health insurers, health systems, industry and academic institutions.

“Members of our advisory panels bring perspectives vital to PCORI’s mission, and we eagerly anticipate the contributions that this new and distinguished set of colleagues brings to our work,” said Harv Feldman, M.D., MSCE, PCORI’s deputy executive director for patient-centered research programs. “The wide range of stakeholder voices represented within these panels will greatly benefit our efforts to achieve the ambitious goal that PCORI has set forth: to fund comparative clinical effectiveness research to improve patients’ health and clinical outcomes.”

Information about the selection process is available on PCORI’s website.

The panelists and the stakeholder groups they represent are as follows:

Advisory Panel on Patient Engagement

• Keneshia Bryant-Moore, Ph.D., University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (Researchers)
• B. Angeloe Burch, Sr., Ph.D., African American Dance Ensemble (Patients, Caregivers, and Patient Advocates)
• Brian Jones (Patients, Caregivers, and Patient Advocates)
• Michael McNear (Patients, Caregivers, and Patient Advocates)
• Nikki Montgomery, M.A., MEd, Family Voices, Inc. (Patients, Caregivers, and Patient Advocates)
• Yael Smiley, M.D., Children’s National Hospital (Clinicians)

Chair & Co-Chair Appointments

• Chair: Jen Brown, MPH, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine (Patients, Caregivers, and Patient Advocates)
• Co-Chair: Agatha Onyinyechukwu Adigwe, MPH, CHES, Multicultural AIDS Coalition (Patients, Caregivers, and Patient Advocates)

Advisory Panel on Healthcare Delivery and Disparities Research

• Terry Adirim, M.D., MBA, MPH, F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (Clinicians)
• Patricia Blair, J.D., Ph.D., MSN, BSN, The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (Training Institutions)
• Barbara Kivowitz, M.A., MSW, Sutter Health (Patients, Caregivers, and Patient Advocates)
• Eugene Manley Jr., Ph.D., M.S., STEMM & Cancer Health Equity Foundation (Patients, Caregivers, and Patient Advocates)
• Heather Rice, Ph.D., MSN, BSN, Cleveland State University (Researchers)
• Hsien Seow, Ph.D., BSc, McMaster University (Researchers)
• Varun Umesh Shetty, M.D., University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Hamot (Clinicians)
• Abbas Zaidi, M.D., Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware (Clinicians)

Chair & Co-Chair Appointments

• Chair: Feylyn Lewis, Ph.D., M.A., Vanderbilt University School of Nursing (Researchers)
• Co-Chair: Diana Cejas, M.D., MPH, Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Clinicians)

Advisory Panel on Clinical Effectiveness and Decision Science

• Ish Bhalla, M.D., Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Payers)
• Isabel Bjork, J.D., M.S., The Foundation to Advance Vascular Cures (Patients, Caregivers, and Patient Advocates)
• Daniel Halevy, M.D., Healthfirst (Payers)
• Varleisha Lyons, Ph.D., OTD, OTR/L, ASDCS, American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc. (Researchers)
• Anne Sales, Ph.D., MSN, RN, University of Missouri (Researchers)
• Aasma Shaukat, M.D., MPH, New York University (Researchers)
• Michael Siegel, Ph.D., M.S., Pediatric Dermatology Research Alliance (Patients, Caregivers, and Patient Advocates)
• Qilu Yu, Ph.D., M.S., National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (Researchers)

Chair Appointment

• Chair: Michael Fischer, M.D., M.S., Boston University School of Medicine/Boston Medical Center (Researchers)

Advisory Panel on Clinical Trials

• Olveen Carrasquillo, M.D., University of Miami Miller School of Medicine (Researchers)
• Ingrid He, J.D., MBA, Autoimmune Registry, Inc. (Patients, Caregivers, and Patient Advocates)
• Michelle Medeiros, M.S., M.A., CCRP, PATIENTS Program, University of Maryland (Researchers)
• Claire Verschraegen, M.D., M.S., Ohio State University (Clinicians)
• Xiaoxi Yao, Ph.D., MPH, Mayo Clinic, (Researchers)
• Chang Yu, Ph.D., M.S., New York University Grossman School of Medicine (Researchers)

Chair & Co-Chair Appointments

• Chair: Cristina Murray-Krezan, Ph.D., M.S., University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine (Researchers)
• Co-Chair: Greg Merritt, Ph.D., Patient is Partner (Patients, Caregivers, and Patient Advocates)

Advisory Panel on Rare Disease

• Gabriella Balasa (Patients, Caregivers, and Patient Advocates)
• Rebecca Bodan, Ph.D., MSN, California State University, Fullerton (Patients, Caregivers, and Patient Advocates)
• Kimberly Haugstad, MBA, Upequity Corporation (Patients, Caregivers, and Patient Advocates)
• Paul Monach, M.D., Ph.D., VA Boston Healthcare System (Researchers)
• Elisabeth Quint, M.D., University of Michigan Medical School (Clinicians)
• Marc Yale, International Pemphigus and Pemphigoid Foundation (Patients, Caregivers, and Patient Advocates)

Chair & Co-Chair Appointments

• Chair: Heather Adams, Ph.D., University of Rochester Medical Center (Researchers)
• Co-Chair: Deanna Fournier, Histiocytosis Association (Patients, Caregivers, and Patient Advocates)

Brief biographies and conflicts of interest disclosures for each panelist appear on PCORI’s website.

PCORI will accept applications for the next cycle of new panelist consideration from Sept. 12, 2023, through March 29, 2024.