A Promise Kept to Patients and Their Families

Shortly after PCORI was established in 2010, we promised patients, their families, clinicians, and the rest of the healthcare community that we would quickly and efficiently fund studies to help them make better-informed decisions about the health and healthcare choices they face. We promised to take a patient-centered approach, meet ambitious timelines, and develop our new institute into a leading funder of comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER).

Today, I’m proud to say that we’re keeping those promises. In 2013, we expect to commit more than $400 million toward research to answer the questions most important to patients and other clinical decision makers.

An Accelerated Flow of Funding

We’ve awarded $88.6 million already this year through the broad funding announcements tied to our national research priorities and committed another $30 million through a topic-specific announcement on preventing fall-related injuries in older adults. Between September and December, we plan to approve up to an additional $300 million for patient-centered outcomes research projects.

Building the capacity to manage and implement a robust research portfolio like ours takes time. In our first two years, we built from the ground up a unique organization with a singular focus on CER that incorporates the perspectives of patients and other stakeholders throughout the research process. Along the way, we have improved our funding processes in response to feedback from the community, expanded our portfolio to include funding announcements focused on specific high-impact topics, and launched a major clinical data infrastructure initiative.

By the end of this calendar year, the funds we have committed will modestly exceed the funds available in the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund at that point – that is, we will have committed future years’ dollars. We can do this because our commitments cover project periods of two or more years, so substantial portions of the committed funding will not be paid out until future years.

We will accelerate this practice during the next two years, with plans to award upwards of $500 million each year. In this way, we can launch as much research as possible as early as possible and expect more high-impact results sooner.

What Does Success Really Look Like?

Of course, funding levels are not the true measure of our success. Rather, our legacy will be determined by our ability to:

• Substantially increase the quantity, quality, and timeliness of useful, trustworthy information available to support health decisions.
• Speed the implementation and use of patient-centered outcomes research evidence.
• Influence clinical and healthcare research funded by others to be more patient-centered.

As a staff of researchers, clinicians, and other healthcare experts, we understand that words and promises alone don’t go far when it comes to improving healthcare decision making or patient outcomes. But with the help of engaged patients and passionate stakeholders, we are making progress towards our goals and becoming a critical resource for the healthcare community.

Thank you, as always, for your support. We look forward to continuing our work together.

Selby is PCORI’s Executive Director
 

PCORI 2013 Research Funding Allocations (awarded and projected)