Each week, Americans tune into their favorite reality TV shows to vote for who should move on to the next round.
You can help determine something much more important: what proposals to make. Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute(PCORI) should provide funding to address some of the most pressing health care issues that patients have.
Because research has not provided answers to their most pressing questions, patients and caregivers often remain in the dark about the best options for diagnosing, treating, or preventing various conditions. PCORI was established to solve this problem. It funds research that gives patients, caregivers, and clinicians the evidence they need to make informed decisions.
There are many questions that must be answered through high-quality research. PCORI receives hundreds of proposals for research, but only funds the most effective to improve patient outcomes and practice.
PCORI has a unique way of identifying these projects. They ask patients and others in the health care system to collaborate with scientists to review proposals. PCORI conducts this by using an open application system. After selecting and training members of the public for application review panels, PCORI then trains them.
“Incorporating the incredible passion and experience of patients and caregivers into the selection of research projects is the foundation for producing information that we can all use to make decisions,”Sue Sheridan is the director of patient engagement at PCORI.
PCORI’s patients and stakeholder reviewers review up to 10 proposals online. These patients and other stakeholder reviewers then discuss the proposals with scientific reviewers who make recommendations on which proposals to be funded. Based on their input, PCORI takes final decisions.
“It was a rewarding experience,”Crystal Brown-Tatum from Houston, Texas is a patient advocate who was recently a reviewer. “Everyone on the panel wanted to hear my thoughts. They appreciated what the patients were bringing to the panel.”
PCORI hopes that it will create a diverse group of reviewers who can identify patient-centered projects likely produce real-world evidence.
“The great thing about PCORI is that they provide training, and that was really helpful to me,”Kim Bailey, Research Director at Families USA, Washington, D.C. based patient advocacy organisation, shared her experience with reviewingers. “It made me feel like I went in to the review process prepared.”
For more information on how you can help shape the future research that helps patients make better healthcare decisions, please visit PCORI’s website at pcori.org.
