Research Action for Health Network (REACHnet) Clinical Research Network

The Research Action for Health Network (REACHnet) CRN is a partnership of four health systems and three academic research institutions in Louisiana and Texas led by the Louisiana Public Health Institute (LPHI). REACHnet is committed to the conduct of patient-centered outcomes research that will in turn have a real effect on health delivery systems and health outcomes. The network is advancing more complete and comprehensive data sets for research by linking clinical data from its participating sites to complementary data sources, including both Medicare and Medicaid claims and claims from private health plans. This data linkage provides a more complete picture of patients’ healthcare experience and is essential for providing the necessary depth of data for real-world evidence studies.

To maximize research opportunities, REACHnet actively engages with a multitude of different stakeholders, including patients, clinicians, health system leaders, researchers, and community members. The network is committed to integrating the perspectives of diverse stakeholders into the network’s infrastructure, research strategies, and daily operations. To uphold REACHnet’s patient-centric model, patient engagement is a network priority. To ensure successful engagement of the patient community, REACHnet created the Health in Our Hands Patient Network Registry. The research registry provides opportunities for patient partnership with the research community and study participant recruitment, as well as a platform to disseminate research results.

REACHnet is governed by a council of co-principal investigators (PIs), which consists of the network PI, site-level PIs, and two patient investigators. The council manages the data infrastructure, research governance, and overall operations of the network based on REACHnet’s Research Participation Policy and broader regulatory framework. Routine operations for REACHnet are based out of the Network Coordinating Center at LPHI.

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, REACHnet will enhance and optimize its infrastructure to support a variety of patient-centered studies by:

• Ensuring meaningful engagement of patients, caregivers, clinicians, delivery systems, payers, 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
• Using 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)