The PCORI Perspective on Patient-Centered Outcomes Research

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) was established as part of the US Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 to fund patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research, extending the concept of patient-centeredness from health care delivery to health care research. In the United States, patient-centered outcomes research is new and not defined in the legislation, and the rationale is unclear to many. In this Viewpoint, we address 2 related questions: What does patientcenteredness in research mean? Why conduct patientcentered outcomes research? The essence of the PCORI definition of patientcentered outcomes research is the evaluation of questions and outcomes…