Dear Ambassadors,

Welcome to the spring edition of the PCORI Ambassador Program Quarterly Newsletter!

This newsletter edition provides recent updates on the PCORI Ambassador Program as well as PCORI-wide announcements and policy updates.

As always, your feedback on the newsletter is appreciated. If you would like to share any thoughts or comments, please send them to the Ambassador Program team at [email protected].

  

The Ambassador Program Team

(Krista Woodward & Meghan Berman)

PCORI is excited to share that a playlist of videos highlighting our Ambassadors is available on our Vimeo and YouTube pages! The videos are a combination of spotlights on individual Ambassadors’ experience with the program and clips answering questions such as: “What do Ambassadors do?” and explaining “Why I became an Ambassador.” These videos are also highlighted on the PCORI Ambassador Program webpages . See an example of a video below.

A special thanks to Janice Tufte, James Harrison , Mat Edick , Sonya Ballentine , Brendaly Rodriguez, Regina Greer Smith, and Cherie C. Binns! 

 

Ambassador Program staff have updated our training to make it more relevant to the role of an Ambassador. As such, we have removed irrelevant content and moved the Ambassador Program modules to the beginning of the training. The updates aim to better prepare individuals for their new role as PCORI Ambassadors. The training will ensure that new Ambassadors have content expertise and actionable ideas to effectively communicate and disseminate relevant and accurate information about PCORI and its funded portfolio. 

The Ambassador Center has already been successful in helping connect numerous Ambassadors to each other and to external patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) stakeholders. Ambassadors have used it to get in touch for speaking opportunities, project collaboration, outreach for development of condition-specific affinity groups, reconnecting with old colleagues and more. The graph shows the type of Ambassador Center requests received between October 2018 and March 2019.



If you have not used the Ambassador Center yet, please review this brief video tutorial to better navigate and utilize this great networking tool. 

 

Coffee Breaks are a monthly series of 20-minute webinars that provide brief program updates or Ambassador spotlights. The series aims to offer peer learning opportunities and to highlight new aspects of the Ambassador Program.



Archived recordings of previous Coffee Break webinars can be found on Yammer and are archived on the PCORI website here . 

We are excited to expand upon the Calls to Action feature of the Ambassador Program newsletter. These calls have been a powerful method for engaging Ambassadors to date so we are expanding them to allow Ambassadors to engage with PCORI more broadly. Through a separate bimonthly newsletter, we will offer 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 community. We hope that these calls to action will inspire new ways for Ambassadors to engage with PCORI’s work and raise awareness about PCOR and evidence in communities that PCORI may not be able to reach.  

We will still maintain the smaller-scale, programmatic calls to action in the quarterly newsletter. Please continue to engage with the recommended activities whenever you see the orange megaphone graphic.

We will roll out a feature for new Ambassadors within the next few months—the Ambassador Mentorship Program—which aims to promote skills development, peer learning, and networking within the program. Ambassador mentors (Ambassadors who have been members for more than two years) will have opportunities to further develop mentorship skills and increase their professional network. Ambassador mentees will gain a trusted advisor who has deep knowledge of the Ambassador Program and will help them better engage moving forward.

The PCORI Ambassador Mentor Program was developed to promote partnership, networking, and co-learning within our community. It also serves as part of the program’s onboarding processes so that new Ambassadors feel better prepared and welcomed upon joining the program. Mentor/mentee pairs will be matched based on stakeholder type and interests.

PCORI reauthorization is under consideration in both chambers of Congress as the legislative process begins to move forward. In the Senate, staff from both parties are discussing the details of reauthorizing language and in the House of Representatives, PCORI was represented at a June 4 hearing of the Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Health. 

Meanwhile, an independent coalition called the Friends of PCORI Reauthorization has come together to advocate for our reauthorization. This outside group, which includes a diverse set of members, has prepared a letter calling on Congress to reauthorize PCORI. This letter has been signed by over 160 organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Association of American Universities, the Better Medicare Alliance, and Families USA, among many others. The Friends of PCORI Reauthorization has also launched a resource page on its website that includes tools for reaching out to Congress to voice your support. 

We expect support among stakeholders to continue to grow in the coming weeks, as the legislative process moves forward. These developments are positive signs that progress is underway on Capitol Hill toward reauthorizing PCORI.

This April briefing, which was held on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, informed attendees about the purpose and perspectives surrounding comparative effectiveness research, including how researchers conduct studies and how various stakeholders may use the results. Panelists also explored the current policy landscape. Learn more about the briefing here. 

At this March briefing in Washington, DC, panels of authors from this issue of Health Affairs —several of whom are associated with PCORI—presented their work and participated in discussions of other topics, such as Engaging in Care and Engaging in Research . Learn more about the briefing here .

PCORI recently posted a funding preannouncement focused on dissemination and implementation — to give prospective research teams time to consider applications. This Limited PCORI Funding Announcement gives PCORI awardees the opportunity, following the generation of results from their PCORI research award, to propose the next step(s) to move their comparative effectiveness research findings into practice, drawing on the knowledge and experience they gained from their PCORI research award. The deadline for submitting a Letter of Intent is September 24, 2019.

A comprehensive list of upcoming funding opportunities can be found on PCORI’s website . 

PCORI is seeking proposals for implementing results from PCORI-funded patient-centered outcomes research, as well as targeted implementation and systematic uptake of shared decision making in healthcare settings. Interested applicants have until 5 pm (ET) on June 19 to submit Letters of Intent.

A comprehensive list of open funding opportunities can be found on PCORI’s website . Full proposals are due starting in mid-January. 

As part of our continuing education activities, clinicians and others can now learn more about how findings from a PCORI-funded study can inform decisions about using broad- versus narrow-spectrum antibiotics for children with acute respiratory tract infections. You can find the CE/CME opportunity here .