Dear Ambassadors,

Welcome to the second Call to Action newsletter of the PCORI Ambassador Program!

As a reminder, this newsletter offers concrete calls to action or recommendations for Ambassadors to share valuable PCORI-funded research results, PCORI products, editorial pieces, peer-reviewed literature, and events with their unique communities. 

Through the first Call to Action newsletter, we have learned how Ambassadors are taking action in their own communities. Within the past two months, Ambassadors have contributed to online magazines and blogs, participated in various PCORI-funded projects, and are recruiting new Ambassadors to join the program. All of these actions are helping to advance patient and stakeholder engagement in health research nationwide!

Below, you will find three new calls to action to focus on for the next couple of months. You can also access the bonus opportunities at the end of the newsletter. Please complete a survey describing any completed calls to action and bonus opportunities from September 1 through November 1. 

Keep sending your completed calls to action and bonus opportunities as it shows how Ambassadors are promoting patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) and PCORI in the field. This information will be especially helpful for reporting to PCORI staff and leadership, including the Executive Team and the Board of Governors. 

Strategy #1: Do you work in a hospital or clinical setting that provides pediatric care? Share this PCORI Story (blurb below) with staff so they can learn more about the I-PASS communication tool. 

A PCORI-funded project led by Christopher Landrigan, MD, PhD, of Boston Children’s Hospital incorporated parents into daily care conversations with doctors and nurses at pediatric units in hospitals, leading to a marked reduction in medical errors and an improvement in patient care. Now, through a PCORI Dissemination and Implementation Award, the project team is spreading the program to 21 hospitals across the country. Read more here: http://bit.ly/2Z4FssE 

Strategy #2: Share one of these prepared tweets on Twitter and tag PCORI.

Including parents in convos between doctors and nurses in pediatric hospital units led to a marked improvement in hospital safety. @landriganc is now expanding this program through a @PCORI Dissemination & Implementation award. http://bit.ly/2Z4FssE 

A @PCORI-funded project brought parents into daily care conversations with doctors and nurses at pediatric units in hospitals, leading to a reduction in medical errors and improved patient care. http://bit.ly/2Z4FssE 

Strategy #3: Are you involved in a research project that might benefit from new communication strategies to reduce medical errors in hospital settings? Discuss this PCORI Story with your research team members to learn from other PCORI-funded researchers.

The 2019 PCORI Annual Meeting is right around the corner with plenty of engagement opportunities for participants! As part of this year's theme, Making a Difference: Using Patient-Centered Research Results in the Real World, attendees at the two-and-a-half-day conference will learn about how patients, researchers, clinicians, payers, and others across health care are working to make health research more useful and relevant. In addition, hear about the latest results of PCORI-funded research and efforts to promote their use in practice, and find out how our unique approach to engaging patients and other stakeholders in the work we do is changing the way health research is conducted. 

Strategy #1: Engage with the PCORI Annual Meeting through Twitter and other social media platforms. You can showcase your subject matter expertise while interacting and networking with others in the field. Here are some tips to keep in mind:

Strategy #2: Connect with staff, PCORI-funded teams, and other health research advocates at the Annual Meeting networking receptions, breakout sessions, and poster sessions. These are great opportunities to meet others in the field and expand your network. Tell us who you met and how you plan to continue engaging with them.

Strategy #3: Are you engaging remotely? Make sure you tune into the live webcasts of keynotes and plenary sessions on the PCORI Annual Meeting website. Watch with your friends, colleagues, and others who would be interested in the sessions. 

We want to recruit more patients, researchers, clinicians, health system representatives, payers, and others to join the PCORI Ambassador Program so more communities nationwide can learn about new research evidence and products coming out of PCORI-funded work. We also aim to diversify the representativeness of the program to make sure that underserved, underrepresented and under-resourced communities are more closely connected with PCORI. Please share any relevant resources about PCORI, such as our fact sheets, and especially our newly developed Become A PCORI Ambassador booklet.

Strategy #1: Please share these videos of PCORI Ambassadors from PCORI’s YouTube page with your communities on social media platforms, email, and other online platforms. The videos answer pertinent questions for potential Ambassadors such as “What do Ambassadors do?” and explain “Why I became an Ambassador.” Tag PCORI if you share on social media platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook. 

Strategy #2: Host a meeting to discuss health conditions, treatments, or outcomes that are being addressed by PCORI-funded research while encouraging others to join the Ambassador Program. Community members might want to join the Ambassador community to meet others who are involved in research or addressing similar issues in their local communities. You might also consider inviting PCORI staff to speak at such an event by making a Speakers Bureau request here.

  

Strategy #3: Have an informal conversation with a friend, family member, or colleague about the Ambassador community and the benefits of becoming more connected with an organization like PCORI. There will be plenty of opportunities to have informal conversations at the Annual Meeting during sessions, networking receptions, and more!