The 2017 PCORI Annual Meeting: A Report on Our Progress and Promise

We’re just days away from PCORI’s third Annual Meeting. We’ll report to the nation on our funded research to help patients and those who care for them make better-informed healthcare decisions. This year’s meeting marks the first in which we focus primarily on the results of research PCORI has funded and communicate those results to our stakeholders: patients, caregivers, clinicians, delivery systems, and payers, all of whom will be well represented among attendees. We invite you to join us, whether in person, on social media, or via webcast.

I always look forward to these gatherings. They’re unique in convening all of those members of the healthcare community mentioned above—people who don’t attend most meetings of research funders or professional societies. That quality has been there since our first Annual Meeting, in 2015. It’s part of what we’ve called “research done differently.” And it’s one reason why our meeting has been designated a Patients IncludedTM conference for a third straight year.

Meeting Highlights

I’m especially excited about this year’s Annual Meeting, which I’m confident will live up to its theme, “Delivering Results, Informing Choices.” We’re fortunate to be convening plenary sessions featuring some two dozen thought leaders from across the stakeholder groups we serve. These sessions focus on how to make health research more useful and patient-centered, and how to support a healthcare system that provides value to all. Our keynote speakers include:

• Freddie White-Johnson, a patient advocate and president of the Fannie Lou Hamer Cancer Foundation
• Alan Alda, the actor, director, author, and science-literacy advocate
• Harlan Krumholz, well-known cardiologist, outcomes researcher and PCORI Board member
• Trent Haywood, Chief Medical Officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

I’m also looking forward to our eight breakout sessions, which will highlight more than a dozen PCORI-funded studies that have produced results that could improve healthcare practice and patient outcomes across a number of high-burden conditions. These studies are just a sampling of the dozens of projects that researchers have completed since we began awarding funding in 2012.

Two sessions are worth special mention. One focuses on our portfolio of studies to improve management of chronic pain and, in the process, address the nation’s opioids epidemic. Another session features studies comparing patient-centered approaches to care for people with multiple sclerosis, a particularly challenging condition.

Sharing Our Findings

Along with highlighting important and useful research evidence, this year’s Annual Meeting showcases our work to enhance public access to research results. These efforts include supporting open science by developing and pilot testing our draft policy on sharing data generated in PCORI-funded studies, conducting peer review of all PCORI-funded projects and posting peer-reviewed results to PCORI’s website, and launching our new program that funds dissemination and implementation of PCORI-study findings.

Along with highlighting important and useful research evidence, this year’s Annual Meeting showcases our work to enhance public access to research results.

We also explore opportunities for engaged stakeholders to use and disseminate the evidence our studies generate, and spotlight our progress in engaging communities to advance a patient-centered healthcare system.

I hope you’ll join us at this year’s PCORI Annual Meeting. You can join the community in person, via webcast, or through ongoing conversations on social media using the hashtag #PCORI2017. I also hope you’ll keep providing your input on our work. After all, it won’t be long before we’ll be planning our 2018 Annual Meeting!