Accelerating Data Value Across a National Community Health Center Network (ADVANCE) Clinical Research Network

The Accelerating Data Value Across a National Community Health Center Network (ADVANCE) CRN is led by OCHIN, Inc. in partnership with Fenway Health, Health Choice Network, Oregon Health & Science University, and the Robert Graham Center/HealthLandscape. ADVANCE is committed to conducting high-quality patient-centered outcomes research and health services research that benefits uninsured and underinsured patients seen in community health centers and the clinics that serve them. ADVANCE aims to create more complete and comprehensive data sets for research and has championed efforts to integrate social determinants of health (SDH) and sexual orientation and gender identity (SO/GI) data into the PCORnet CDM. The addition of SDH and SO/GI data is essential for providing the necessary depth of data for real-world evidence studies and helping provide context for health resource utilization and health outcomes for vulnerable patients.

ADVANCE is led by OCHIN Principal Investigator Jon Puro, MPA-HA, and is governed by an Executive Committee (EC) consisting of partner Principal Investigators Ken Mayer, MD, from Fenway Health; Tim Long, MD, from Health Choice Network; John Muench, MD, MPH, from Oregon Health & Science University; and Jene Grandmont from the Robert Graham Center/HealthLandscape. The duties of the EC are to monitor project milestones, refine network policies, and oversee coordination of the network. The EC is supported by four core management domains housed at OCHIN. These cores consist of:

• An Administrative Core responsible for project management and business development for the network
• An Engagement and Dissemination Core responsible for engaging patient and health system stakeholders throughout the research process
• A Research Core charged with facilitating scientific collaboration across participating sites
• A Data Core that oversees ADVANCE’s data infrastructure to ensure its security, quality, and fitness of data to be used in research

ADVANCE’s governance structure allows for significant engagement of a diverse group of stakeholders, including patients, clinicians, health system leaders, and researchers. ADVANCE is committed to upholding these key partnerships in order to maximize research opportunities and ensure the strategy and execution of research projects is well-informed by all stakeholders. To uphold ADVANCE’s patient-centric model, patient engagement is a network priority. The Patient Engagement Panel, launched under the Engagement and Dissemination Core in 2012, provides consultation and input to ensure patient perspective informs all steps in the research process including study design, recruitment, analysis, and dissemination.   

PCORnet is intended to serve as a national resource for conducting rapid, efficient, patient-centered observational and interventional randomized research that improves healthcare delivery and health outcomes. Over the course of this project period, ADVANCE will enhance and optimize its network infrastructure to support a variety of patient-centered studies by:

• Ensuring meaningful engagement of patients, caregivers, clinicians, delivery systems, payors, and researchers in all phases of the research process
• Operating through a network model in which data remains at the source while allowing approved researchers within and outside the network to access it securely through a central point
• Facilitating the public sharing of resources and reusable tools to make research more efficient and reproducible
• Applying the PCORnet CDM, which standardizes the data collected when patients receive care so that it is comparable across health systems and can be used for patient-centered outcomes research
• Using streamlined processes, such as one central IRB for studies involving multiple systems and standardized data use agreements, to enable research to be quicker and more efficient.

About PCORnet^® Clinical Research Networks (CRNs)