The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) named Atrium Health as one of 42 health systems nationwide to participate in a pioneering initiative to accelerate the implementation of practice-changing research results in clinical care.
As a participant in PCORI’s new Health Systems Implementation Initiative (HSII), Atrium Health will bring our collective research experience and expertise in health care delivery to bear to develop and implement viable strategies to actively adopt new evidence. The ultimate goal is to cut the estimated 17-year lag between the publication of research results that have been shown to improve patient outcomes and their widespread uptake in health care practice.
“This award supports us in our goals as an academic learning health system to accelerate the translation of high quality, patient-centered research into the practice of medicine at the bedside, and ultimately, improve the health of our communities,” said Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist President, Kevin High, MD, MS, MACP, FIDSA. “The scale and integration of our academic learning health system position us to be a leader in this type of innovation.” Dr. High is a co-lead investigator along with Jennifer Sullivan, MD, MPH.
Health systems accepted into the PCORI HSII network will have exclusive access to submit proposals for early-stage capacity building projects. Each participating health system can receive up to $500,000 for an early-phase project. Additionally, the HSII initiative will support practical and innovative projects that promote the uptake of targeted PCORI-funded initiatives that have shown to be promising in through PCORI-focused initiatives. These projects will be funded in the range of $500,000 - $5 million per implementation project depending on the nature and scope of the project.
In addition, through the HSII Learning Network, Atrium Health, and other participants will share experiences and learn from one another about best practices for implementation, evaluation metrics, and other topics integral to successful implementation of care-informing strategies. Through the network, participants will provide input to PCORI on topics and specific PCORI-funded findings of interest for future implementation projects.
HSII participants collectively represent 800 hospitals serving 79 million unique patients—nearly a quarter of the U.S. population—across 41 states and the District of Columbia. In addition to health systems like Atrium Health, they include academic medical centers, community-based systems, integrated healthcare delivery and finance systems, safety net health systems, faith-based systems, public health care delivery systems, and a medical center within the Veterans Health Administration. See the full list on PCORI’s website.
“We welcome the opportunity to work with Atrium Health and the other health systems participating in this groundbreaking network that will leverage their knowledge and experience to facilitate practice change and improve care based on results of PCORI-funded research,” said PCORI Executive Director Nakela L. Cook, M.D., M.P.H. “The HSII participants’ efforts will lay the groundwork for future expansion and broader implementation by demonstrating pathways to uptake and sharing lessons learned across health systems.”