Emerging healthcare interventions: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute's programmatic initiative.

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization established by the U.S. Congress to fund comparative clinical effectiveness research focusing on patient-centered outcomes through the engagement of stakeholders.

Patterns of public participation.

Purpose - The paper summarizes data from 12 countries, chosen to exhibit wide variation, on the role and place of public participation in the setting of priorities. The purpose of this paper is to exhibit cross-national patterns in respect of public participation, linking those differences to institutional features of the countries concerned. Design/methodology/approach - The approach is an example of case-orientated qualitative assessment of participation practices.

An overview and discussion of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute's decision aid portfolio.

Decision aids (DAs) help patients make informed healthcare decisions in a manner consistent with their values and preferences. Despite their promise, DAs developed with public research dollars are not being implemented and adopted in real-world patient care settings at a rate consistent with which they are being developed. To appraise the sum of the parts of the portfolio and create a strategic imperative surrounding future funding, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) tasked the Duke Evidence Synthesis Group with evaluating its DA portfolio.

Primary Care Research in the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute's Portfolio.

In their article in this issue, Mazur and colleagues analyze the characteristics of early recipients of funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). Mazur and colleagues note correctly that PCORI has a unique purpose and mission and suggest that it should therefore have a distinct portfolio of researchers and departments when compared with other funders such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Responding on behalf of PCORI, the authors of this Commentary agree with the characterization of PCORI's mission as distinct from that of NIH and others.

How the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute is engaging patients and others in shaping its research agenda.

Clinical research has been driven traditionally by investigators, from generating research questions and outcomes through analysis and release of study results. Building on the work of others, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) is tapping into its broad-based stakeholder community--especially patients, caregivers, and their clinicians--to generate topics for research, help the institute prioritize those topics, select topics for funding, and ensure patients' involvement in the design of research projects. This article describes PCORI's approach, which is emblematic of the organization's mandate under the Affordable Care Act to seek meaningful ways to integrate the patient's voice into the research process, and describes how it is being used in selection of research that PCORI will fund.

Building sustainable multi-functional prospective electronic clinical data systems.

A better alignment in the goals of the biomedical research enterprise and the health care delivery system can help fill the large gaps in our knowledge of the impact of clinical interventions on patient outcomes in the real world. There are several initiatives underway to align the research priorities of patients, providers, researchers, and policy makers. These include Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)-supported projects to build flexible prospective clinical electronic data infrastructure that meet the needs of these diverse users.

Debunking myths of protocol registration.

Developing and registering protocols may seem like an added burden to systematic review investigators. This paper discusses benefits of protocol registration and debunks common misperceptions on the barriers of protocol registration. Protocol registration is easy to do, reduces duplication of effort and benefits the review team by preventing later confusion.

Comparative effectiveness research priorities at federal agencies: the view from the Department of Veterans Affairs, National Institute on Aging, and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

In the last year, attention has been focused on translating federally sponsored health research into better health for Americans. Since the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) on February 17, 2009, ARRA funds to support Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) have increased this focus. A large proportion of topical areas of interest in CER affects the older segment of the population.

AHRQ series paper 1: comparing medical interventions: AHRQ and the effective health-care program.

In 2005, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality established the Effective Health Care (EHC) Program. The EHC Program aims to provide understandable and actionable information for patients, clinicians, and policy makers. The Evidence-based Practice Centers are one of the cornerstones of the EHC Program.

Funding opportunities in knowledge translation: review of the AHRQ's "Translating Research into Practice" initiatives, competing funding agencies, and strategies for success.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality actively funds and conducts research to improve health care for all Americans. This article is intended to provide a brief overview of Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality activities in knowledge translation and to accompany the presentation given on May 15, 2007, to the Academic Emergency Medicine Consensus Conference, "Knowledge Translation in Emergency Medicine: Establishing a Research Agenda and Guide Map for Evidence Uptake."

Moving closer to a rapid-learning health care system.

This Perspective discusses activities that are necessary for developing a rapid-learning health system. Recognition of the central role that patients play in the successful evolution of such a system will help ensure that the goals of the transformation are met. Understanding the trade-offs of using a less controlled form of research to inform health care decision making and making necessary investments in methodology and translation will help secure the success of continuous-learning research.