RTI International and partners to support PCORI's Engagement of the Public and Patients

The new partnership will help to advance patient-centered research

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — RTI International, a nonprofit research institute, has been selected by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) as a prime contractor for its Analytic and Operational Support for the Engagement of the Public and Patients Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract. Partners included in this award include Stanford University, North Carolina Central University, and the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences (NC TraCS) Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The focus of this IDIQ contract is to provide programmatic and analytic support for PCORI. RTI will collaborate with its partners and PCORI to build a patient-centered outcomes research community, engage this community in patient-centered outcomes research, and promote the dissemination and implementation of patient-centered outcomes research findings.

"I am excited that RTI will be working to help PCORI advance it's patient-centered research mission, and establish a robust, diverse and inclusive patient-centered research community," said Megan Lewis, PhD, the RTI IDIQ contract lead. "By making the research process more patient-centered and stakeholder driven, PCORI strives to improve the quality, relevance, and usability of health care research study findings. RTI is also very excited to partner with colleagues at Stanford University School of Medicine, North Carolina Central University, and the NC TraCS Institute at UNC-Chapel Hill to support this work."

The work that will be part of this IDIQ contract will focus specifically on five domains:

1. The Science of Engagement
2. Economic Resource Services
3. Environmental Scans, Literature Reviews, and Issue Briefs
4. Education and Training
5. Facilitation and Support of Meetings and Community Engagement

PCORI is a US-based nonprofit and nongovernmental organization that was authorized by Congress in 2010 as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Research funded by PCORI involves patients, caregivers, clinicians, and other healthcare stakeholders as research team members.

This three-year IDIQ contract will fund $3.1 million in contracts annually to advance PCORI's mission to help patients make informed healthcare choices, improve healthcare delivery and outcomes, and support the production and promotion of high-integrity, evidence-based research information guided by patients, caregivers, and the broader healthcare community.

To date, the team has won three task orders within the IDIQ contract:

• Conducting a scoping review, re-evaluation, and maintenance of PCORI's Literature Explorer, which compiles published evidence from diverse sources on a wide array of patient engagement topics and serves as a resource for PCORI and the entire patient-centered research community.
• Supporting PCORI's efforts to track the uptake of PCORI-funded research results into Medicare policy and coverage via a landscape review and key informant interviews. Influencing policy and coverage was one of the central goals in establishing PCORI as part of the ACA.
• Creating a resource center to support PCORI in considering the potential costs and economic impacts of healthcare services in PCORI-funded research. Establishing the costs and economic impacts of potential services stemming from PCORI-funded research is important for uptake and the sustainability of healthcare services.