PCORI thanks departing Chief Science Officer for contributions and announces Acting CSO

Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Chief Science Officer Evelyn P. Whitlock, MD, MPH, who has led a number of important new initiatives during her tenure, has announced her intention to resign from PCORI effective June 8. Diane Bild, MD, MPH, Associate Director for Clinical Effectiveness and Decision Science at PCORI, has been named Acting Chief Science Officer pending the outcome of a national search for a permanent replacement.

“Evelyn’s leadership and expertise have made an indelible mark on PCORI’s work in her two-and-a-half years with us,” said PCORI Executive Director Joe Selby, MD, MPH. “She’s made significant contributions to the Science department, leading PCORI into new and exciting projects. She will be missed.”

Whitlock, a board-certified preventive medicine physician, led PCORI into several new methodologic areas, including significantly expanding PCORI’s evidence synthesis activities, launching PCORI’s first individual patient-data meta-analyses, enhanced efforts to understand how different treatments affect people differently, a “predictive analytics” initiative designed to use data to better understand who will benefit from which treatments, and important work with other funders to make clinical research more efficient and less wasteful.  

Prior to joining PCORI, Whitlock was the founding Director of the Kaiser Permanente Research Affiliates Evidence-based Practice Center, or EPC, one of 13 officially designated EPCs in the nation. She also served as the principal investigator for multiple contracts for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force to provide systematic reviews, which help make evidence-based recommendations for clinical preventive services across all ages and health conditions.

Bild has made instrumental contributions to PCORI through her leadership role in the Clinical Effectiveness and Decision Science program. The program supports research that compares effectiveness and safety of alternative healthcare options to enable patients and providers to make informed healthcare decisions.

Bild joined PCORI in 2013 after 24 years with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, where she served as both Deputy Director and Associate Director within the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences. She oversaw a program of research in cardiovascular epidemiology, prevention trials and health services research. Prior to that, she was a medical officer in the Division of Diabetes Control at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.