New Clinical Research Network holds great promise for improving treatments for patients

Finding the most effective ways of detecting, treating, and preventing disease is essential to medical progress. Such efforts are known as comparative effectiveness research (CER) and help determine what works and what doesn’t work in clinical practice. However, the current infrastructure for CER can be slow and expensive, and may not reflect experience in the real world. Today, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) approved $93.5 million supporting 29 clinical research data networks that together will form an ambitious new resource known as PCORnet, the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network. The vision for PCORnet is a secure, national data network that improves the speed, efficiency, and use of patient-centered comparative effectiveness research (CER). Once fully operational, the network will provide the needed infrastructure for researchers to access millions of patients of diverse backgrounds, while simultaneously making it easier for patients to become active participants in such studies. I encourage you to read more about PCORnet on my blog post: http://directorsblog.nih.gov/2013/12/17/pcornet-meeting-clinical-trials-need-for-speed/.

Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, National Institutes of Health