The Patient-centered Outcomes Research Institute’s Role in Advancing Methods for Patient-centered Outcomes Research

Currently, there is wide-spread recognition that much of health care is insufficiently grounded in evidence as to what works for whom under what circumstances. An important reason for this is that research efforts often do not compare alternative options of health care nor are they sufficiently focused on outcomes that matter to patients. In addition, the methods to conduct research designed to inform decision makers about what works for whom and the infrastructure to support these efforts require further development. The Patient-centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) was established to fund patient-centered comparative effectiveness research (CER) to assist patients, clinicians, payers, and policy makers in making informed health decisions. Its mission also includes an active program to develop and improve CER methods and to invest in critical infrastructure within which effective and efficient health care research can be conducted and integrated with a learning health care system. This article focuses on PCORI’s mission relative to CER methods development and improvement. We describe PCORI’s legislatively mandated Methodology Committee and its major initial product, the Methodology Report; PCORI’s current slate of CER methods projects; and finally, some initial thoughts about future areas where further methods development is needed.