MU Health Care joins 41 other U.S. health systems to carry out multi-year PCORI-funded initiative.

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) has selected MU Health Care as one of 42 health systems nationwide to carry out a pioneering initiative to accelerate the implementation of practice-changing research results in clinical care to improve patients’ outcomes.

As a participant in PCORI’s Health Systems Implementation Initiative (HSII), MU Health Care will bring its on-the-ground experience and expertise in health care delivery to bear to develop and implement viable strategies to actively adopt new evidence. The goal is to cut the estimated 17-year lag between publication of research results that have been shown to improve patients’ outcomes and their widespread uptake in health care practice.

"MU Health Care’s selection is a tremendous opportunity for our organization to access the latest health care delivery expertise to build upon our success in patient outcomes,” said Stevan Whitt, Chief Medical Officer of MU Health Care. “Our participation in the initiative enables us to remain forward-looking and on the leading edge of innovation.”

HSII participating health systems have the opportunity to prepare proposals for capacity building projects in the first stage of the initiative. Each participating health system can receive up to $500,000 for a project in this initial stage that supports preparation for future implementation strategies. A second HSII funding opportunity will support practical and innovative projects that promote uptake of specific evidence from PCORI-funded research studies within the health systems, with funds ranging from $500,000 to $5 million per implementation project.

In addition, through the HSII Learning Network, MU Health Care 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.

“Our participation with this initiative will accelerate our efforts to advance changes in care delivery to improve health care for Missourians,” said Shanon Fucik, MU Health Care Chief Nursing Officer. “We are honored to have been selected and look forward to leveraging the access to research and a network of like-minded institutions to innovate on best practices to better serve our patients and their families.”

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. 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 MU Health Care and the other health systems participating in this groundbreaking initiative 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.”

HSII is part of a portfolio of PCORI-funded efforts that aim to improve the awareness, uptake and use of results from patient-centered comparative effectiveness research. PCORI is an independent, non-profit organization that funds comparative clinical effectiveness research, which provides patients, their caregivers and clinicians with the evidence to make better-informed health and healthcare decisions. PCORI is committed to seeking input from a broad range of stakeholders to guide its work.