Research We Fund

PCORI funds patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) and CER-related projects. The key components of PCORI’s funded projects include patient-centered CER; the science of engagement in research; dissemination and implementation of PCORI-funded CER results; and investments to enhance the nation’s health research infrastructure for conducting CER, including CER methods research. PCORI also funds projects that enhance communities' ability to partner on patient-centered CER, building communities equipped to engage in patient-centered CER through its Engagement Awards Program.

Patient-Centered CER

A female African-American physician consults at the bedside of a male African-American patient who is lying down.

PCORI funds patient-centered CER that looks at two or more different healthcare options to understand what works best for different people in different circumstances. PCORI’s goal is to fund patient-centered CER studies and research-related projects that provide reliable, useful information to help people make informed healthcare decisions and improve patient care and outcomes.

Why CER?

With an ever-increasing number of effective care options for many conditions, Americans often face choices without information that can help them weigh the trade-offs of their options. PCORI funds research that addresses an important evidence gap or decisional dilemma faced by patients, families, clinicians and other health and healthcare community members.

Elements of PCORI-Funded CER

PCORI funds patient-centered CER that advances the National Priorities for Health and is responsive to patient needs, outcomes and preferences. We offer both broad and focused funding opportunities on topics identified directly by researchers and in response to specific health evidence needs informed by patients, caregivers and others from the broader healthcare community.

In PCORI-funded patient-centered CER, researchers compared two or more care approaches. Examples include:

  • Surgery versus medication in the treatment of appendectomy. 
  • Two different anesthesia approaches for older adults requiring hip fracture surgery.
  • Two different approaches in managing weight and metabolic health (metformin plus education program, educational program and exercise alone) in youth with bipolar disorder.
  • Two different inhalers for patients with severe asthma.
  • Two different approaches for delivering mental health treatment (collaborative care versus enhanced referral) in patients with complex psychiatric conditions.
  • Comparing two telehealth approaches for patients with complex mental health conditions who receive care at rural clinics.

Visit our complete portfolio of funded studies and results.

PCORI-funded CER has the following characteristics:

  • Patient-centered. CER that addresses questions and concerns most important to patients and their caregivers, generating evidence that is relevant and useful to patients and others.
  • Comparative effectiveness. CER that compares at least two available health treatments, services or practices. PCORI seeks proposals that compare clinical interventions (e.g., pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatments, screening and diagnostic approaches) and healthcare delivery system interventions (e.g., workforce, technologies, healthcare service delivery designs).
  • Patient-engaged. CER that meaningfully engages patients and others throughout the research process to make research more relevant, useful and trustworthy. PCORI's Foundational Expectations for Partnerships in Research offers guidance for engaging patients and other partners in the research process.
  • Applicability. CER results that provide evidence that can be readily adopted in practice settings nationwide.

In funding patient-centered CER studies, PCORI considers the following factors that could contribute to health outcomes for patient groups:

  • Variations in disease incidence, prevalence and burden.Evidence gaps in clinical outcomes, practice variations and health disparities that could affect healthcare delivery or care outcomes.
  • Potential relevance to prevention, diagnosis, treatment, monitoring or management of health.
  • Potential for new evidence to improve health or well-being.

PCORI encourages awardees to capture, as appropriate the full range of clinical and patient-centered outcomes relevant to patients, caregivers and stakeholders, including data on the potential burdens and economic impacts of the utilization of medical treatments, items and services.

Applicants for PCORI funding are encouraged but not obligated to consider use of PCORnet® to achieve their study goals. PCORnet provides a broad data infrastructure that supports conducting large observational studies that include clinical and patient-reported outcomes as well as large, pragmatic clinical trials embedded within participating systems.

Strengthening CER and Expanding Its Impact

PCORI funds engagement in research, dissemination and implementation of research results and investments to enhance the nation’s health research infrastructure for conducting CER.

Engagement in Research 

The Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award Program supports bringing more patients, caregivers and the broader healthcare community into the research process. This program funds projects that provide resources to communities to equip them to better engage in patient-centered CER. These projects also help to disseminate PCORI-funded research results to those who need them.

Dissemination and Implementation 

PCORI prioritizes and funds the dissemination and implementation of its funded CER findings to ensure that new evidence quickly makes it into the hands of people who can use it to make informed choices about their health. PCORI's Dissemination and Implementation (D&I) Program funds projects that actively facilitate the uptake and integration of evidence from PCORI-funded studies into real-world clinical practice.

CER Methodology Research 

Improving existing CER methods benefits patients, caregivers and clinicians in making healthcare decisions. PCORI-funded methodology studies provide results that guide researchers in planning CER studies and also can help decision makers weigh the value of research results. More rigorous methods guide the design and implementation of CER that yields valid and actionable evidence. The PCORI Methodology Standards and PCORI Methodology Report provide specific guidance on designing and conducting patient-centered CER.

Systematic Reviews

PCORI funds systematic reviews that address high priority clinical questions for patients by summarizing and interpreting an array of findings reported by a broad range of key research studies on a given topic. Consistent with PCORI’s stakeholder-driven approach, these reviews incorporate patient and other stakeholder input throughout their development lifecycle. PCORI’s goal is to produce up-to-date, actionable evidence to inform important healthcare choices.

Science of Engagement Research 

Since its establishment, PCORI has accelerated the movement toward participatory research that seeks to involve patients, caregivers and many others as partners in the research process. However, little systematic evidence exists that documents which engagement methods are most effective. PCORI-funded engagement in research studies seeks to generate evidence about engagement approaches in research, effective ways to measure meaningful engagement and more robust methods for conducting engaged research.

Updated: April 18, 2025

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