Want to see how the media are covering and analyzing the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute’s release of its draft national research priorities? Interested in learning more about the launch of the Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research? We’ve highlighted those topics and more in our CER Tweets of the Week*:

• Julie_appleby: Institute's draft comparative effectiveness research agenda doesn't list specific diseases to study http://ow.ly/8Doz4
• ben_geisler: CER to influence insurance plans's formulary more http://fb.me/1xnqZCWCD
• sarahkliff: Q&A w PCORI director Joe Selby. He wants their comparative effectiveness research to drive health coverage decisions. http://wapo.st/ypsxBU
• organic_beauty: Comparative Effectiveness Body Releases Research Draft Priorities for Public ... http://bit.ly/wFLzLY
• balimore: Medical News : Panel releases draft priorities for comparative effectiveness research: The draft, which offered ... http://bit.ly/whSfgj
• KipPiper: Comparative Effectiveness Research: Draft PCORI national research agenda, priorities. http://goo.gl/raIUU #CER
• aawayne: New comparative effectiveness research institute plans to put only about 40% of its budget toward actual #CER. http://bloom.bg/x3hGzx #hcr
• AcademyHealth: What do you think about @PCORI's research priorities and agenda? http://ow.ly/8Dr6w#PCOR #PCORI #CER
• futuresciencegp: New Launch - Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research: Future Medicine Ltd has today announced the launch o... http://bit.ly/wBkqru
• DrugInfoAssn: NPC Robert W. Dubois Debuts Column, "From Methods to Policy," in New Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research http://bit.ly/zVcdIo #CER
• HealthLeaders: PCORI First Draft Short on Specifics: The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute has issued... http://bit.ly/wTr3m2 #healthleaders
• modrnhealthcr: Modern Healthcare: PCORI seeks input on draft research agenda http://j.mp/yCbCRZ
• ThinkWellPoint: How can health care #CER help patients make better health choices? We’ll discuss w/ @NPCnow & NHCouncil http://j.mp/zr0BrX
• newsfrompmc: Amy Miller discusses #PCORI Research Priorities and questions how well they support personalized medicine http://bit.ly/z8cbg7
• glassmanamanda: Past inventories of comparative effectiveness research http://j.mp/xydDbz
• EvidenceBsdMed: 7 Top Concerns for Spine Surgeons in 2012: Evidence-based medicine has been on the tongue of many healthcare pro... http://bit.ly/xsweyn
• HayesPrologue: The Demonization of Comparative Effectiveness Research (Winifred S. Hayes, PhD, President and CEO, Hayes, Inc.): http://ow.ly/8lsWI
• DartmouthMPH_MS: RT @dartmouthmph_ms: @DartmouthMPH_MS' Harold C. Sox & Steven N. Goodman: Comparative Effectiveness Research http://ow.ly/8xNjO

* The opinions expressed in the tweets are for informational purposes and do not necessarily reflect NPC’s views.

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) today released its draft national research priorities and agenda, which will set the framework for initial investments in comparative effectiveness research (CER). PCORI outlined five main areas of concentration as priorities:

• Comparative Assessment of Options for Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment: Comparing the effectiveness and safety of alternative prevention, diagnosis, and treatment options to see which ones work best for different people with a particular health problem.
• Improving Health Care Systems: Comparing health system-level approaches to improving access, supporting patient self-care, innovative use of health information technology, coordinating care for complex conditions, and deploying workforce effectively.
• Communication and Dissemination Research: Comparing approaches to providing comparative effectiveness research information and supporting shared decision-making between patients and their providers. 
• Addressing Disparities: Identifying potential differences in prevention, diagnosis or treatment effectiveness, or preferred clinical outcomes across patient populations and the healthcare required to achieve best outcomes in each population.
• Accelerating Patient-Centered Outcomes Research and Methodological Research: Improving the nation’s capacity to conduct patient-centered outcomes research, by building data infrastructure, improving analytic methods, and training researchers, patients and other stakeholders to participate in this research.

The priorities also informed PCORI’s proposed initial agenda, which “is specific with respect to study questions that will be supported, but not to the conditions (or treatments) that can be studied.” PCORI, during its board of governors meeting last week, explained that this “non-specificity allows for a flexibility in the search for the best opportunities.”
Additionally, PCORI continued to emphasize the importance of involving patients in the research. In particular, PCORI stressed its focus on “open and transparent science that involves participants in decisions about making data available for further study,” and its commitment to a “diverse research portfolio.”

The priorities were developed over a five-month period and based on prior prioritization efforts. PCORI worked to incorporate stakeholder input as it drafted the agenda and priorities, and will be further refining the draft following the public comment period. In addition to accepting comments on its website through March 15, PCORI will be hosting forums with patient, caregiver, and clinician groups, as well as a public stakeholder meeting on February 27 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

In comments to the PCORI board of governors last week, NPC pointed out some of the issues PCORI will need to consider as it sifts through the hundreds of public comments it is likely to receive. Signaling PCORI’s rank order prioritization, balancing the research portfolio with both a broad call for research ideas as well as specific clinical questions to be addressed, and engaging stakeholders in the actual prioritization in a transparent manner will be beneficial to both the board and the public, noted NPC.

Read NPC’s comments.

The main reason for providing health care information is to enable patients to make informed, knowledgeable decisions about their treatment options. But as Dr. Art Caplan, Director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, points out, it can be challenging for patients to find trusted sources of information and comprehend what it all means.

Watch Dr. Caplan discuss these communications challenges in our video, and hear him present on an ethical framework communicating CER information during a February 9 conference hosted by the National Pharmaceutical Council, WellPoint, and the National Health Council.

There is no charge to attend the conference, "Asymmetry in the Ability to Communicate CER Findings: Ethics and Issues for Informed Decision Making," which will be held at the Omni Shoreham in Washington, DC. Register online today!