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Dear Ambassadors,
Welcome to the winter edition of the PCORI Ambassador program quarterly newsletter!
Many Ambassadors have expressed a desire for regular updates about PCORI and the Ambassador program. As a result, we decided to reinstate the PCORI Ambassador program newsletter in order to effectively share information with all of you. Our New Year's resolution is to bolster communication and create more opportunities for peer-to-peer learning. We hope this newsletter will help us achieve this goal!
We welcome your feedback on the frequency, quality, and relevance of the newsletter's content. As always, if you have any questions or comments about the newsletter please reach out to ambassadors@pcori.org.
The Ambassador Program Team
(Krista Woodward, Meghan Berman, and Jourdan Davis)
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| Ambassador Program 2.0: Survey Results |
We recently solicited feedback from Ambassadors through the Ambassador Program Redesign Survey. We surveyed all Ambassadors (N=347) and yielded a response rate of 40 percent (N=140). This survey primarily queried Ambassadors' experience with the program and how to improve it. We asked about communication preferences, activities, match-making, and more!
The results identified several major changes that Ambassadors would like to see integrated into PCORI's Ambassador Program 2.0. See the categorized suggestions from your response below:
Program Improvements
- More frequent communication and improved platforms
- Regional and condition-based affinity groups
- In-person, PCORI-sponsored networking opportunities
- A more well-defined role with corresponding opportunities
- A repository of tools to utilize the knowledge gained in the training
We also asked for feedback about the Ambassador program training. We want to prepare Ambassadors to fulfill this role in the community. See the categorized themes from your responses below:
Training Feedback
- Include more understandable language for those unfamiliar with research
- Include more content on how to be an effective Ambassador
- Include more content on how to effectively communicate research findings
- Include more content on how to become more involved with PCORI
- Periodic continual education should occur
In response to this feedback, PCORI staff has begun to conduct a programmatic overhaul of the Ambassador program. Our three main priorities for the Ambassador program this year are: improving our communication platforms, enhancing the Ambassador program training and support, and facilitating peer-to-peer learning and networking. This year will be a big building year for the Ambassador program, and we hope that these priorities will build the necessary community infrastructure and provide better guidance surrounding Ambassador responsibilities and activities Ambassadors can participate in.
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Annual Meeting Preconference Recap
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PCORI's third
Annual Meeting kicked off with a Preconference Session to convene patients and PCORI Ambassadors before PCORI's Annual Meeting. There was lively participation from attendees, including discussion of shared insights and experiences regarding successes and challenges from the field, valuable tips on engaging the patient voice, and information on different programs and processes within PCORI.
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The Engagement Reception brought together PCORI staff, Engagement awardees, Pipeline to Proposal awardees, Ambassadors, and patient scholarship recipients. The reception fostered an informal environment to catch up with old colleagues and meet some new people. We hope that attendees found the Preconference and Engagement Reception to be informative and inspiring.
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This will be a very pivotal year for PCORI as we continue to position PCORI for reauthorization in 2019. We are currently well prepared to showcase PCORI's increasing number of research results, impacts they will have on the health system, and the continued need for more patient-centered outcomes research.
Our plan is to continue raising the awareness level, among policymakers and advocates, of the importance and value of PCORI, with the goal of building support for reauthorization among key stakeholders, advocates, and Congressional leaders. This will include activities such as Congressional briefings on priority conditions and topics, and highlighting key PCORI-funded studies; further engagement through workshops and roundtables with key stakeholder communities; and efforts to demonstrate the impacts of PCORI research findings on improving the health system.
- Andrew Hu, Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs
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| Ambassador Program Spotlight |
PCORI Ambassador Freddie-White Johnson, MPPA, was the opening plenary speaker at the 2017 PCORI Annual Meeting. Her session explored, from the patient's point of view, how we can produce more relevant evidence for patients and other healthcare stakeholders, and get it to them in more user-friendly formats.
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What else would you like to see in this newsletter? If you have input on content or would like to contribute to next quarter's newsletter, please contact Meghan Berman before 4/1/18, at ambassadors@pcori.org.
If you wish to change the email address that receives this newsletter, please contact us at ambassadors@pcori.org.
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Call for Advisory Panelists
PCORI is delighted to announce openings on our Advisory Panels. We invite you to apply to be a member on one of these Advisory Panels. PCORI will consider all applications submitted before March 30, 2018 at 5:00 PM EST. The PCORI Advisory Panels are an important way to bring voices from across the healthcare community into our research work. To apply or for more information, please visit our website.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us at advisorypanels@pcori.org.
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Call for Peer Reviewers
PCORI Peer Review is seeking patient and stakeholder reviewers for upcoming PCORI-funded research studies that have reached completion. We are seeking those who have served as a caregiver for or have lived experience with pediatric asthma, diabetes, trauma/injury, and disabilities. Additionally, experience with adult-level chronic conditions is needed, particularly those with multiple chronic conditions and subsequent management of care. Patients with lived experience or expertise in lymphoma or degenerative spinal stenosis are also of particular need.
Our goal is to engage the broader healthcare community in a peer-review process that assesses research through the lens of scientific integrity and credibility, but also relevance and usefulness, which is why your participation is vital. To apply and learn more about becoming a PCORI Peer Reviewer, please visit our website.
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Open Funding Opportunities
A comprehensive list of open funding opportunities can be found on PCORI's website. LOIs and full proposals are due starting in early February.
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Upcoming Funding Opportunities
You may want to pass these Cycle 2 2018 opportunities along to your network!
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Try Our New Literature Explorer
Finding literature on engagement in health research can be challenging because there are no standard search terms for describing what engagement means in this context. So, PCORI staff members have put together a searchable list of publications on engagement in health research, selected through a process described here.
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