Blog Archives

PIPC Weekly Update - June 28, 2013

6/28/2013

In This Week’s Issue:
1. Upcoming PCORI Events and Deadlines, see details below.
2. AHRQ Announces Funding for Dissemination of CER, click here for details on the funding opportunity.
3. PCORI Blog: Getting Specific: PCORI Starts Seeking Ways to Better Address Key Health Topics, click here to view the blog post.
4. Blog: A Voice Is Missing from Discussions of the Patient Experiences, click here to view the blog post.
5. Health Affairs Blog: Improving The Rhetoric Of Rationing, click here to view part one of the blog post, and here to view part two.
6. Modern Healthcare: Big Data and Big Government, click here to view the article (subscription only).

PIPC Weekly Update - June 21, 2013

6/21/2013

In This Week’s Issue:
1.PCORI Launches “Engagement Awards” Program to Advance Patient-Centered Outcomes Research, click here to view the press release and here to view a related post on the PCORI Blog.
2. PCORI to Invest $17 Million to Address Disparities in Asthma Burden and Care, click here to view the press release.
3. New York Times: PIPC Chairman Highlights the Need for Communication Tools on CER, click here to view the letter to the editor.
4. IRS Posts Advice to Insurers on PCORI Research Fee, click here to view the Q&A document, and here to view the additional memorandum.
5. The Philadelphia Inquirer: Difficulty Funding Surgery Studies, click here to view the article.

New York Times: Keeping Up With Medical Knowledge

6/14/2013

In letter to the editor in response to a recent New York Times op-ed, PIPC Chairman Tony Coelho writes that PIPC cautions against one-size fits all solutions to patient care. "Physicians are very capable of weighing the evidence and individualizing care based on it. It would be a mistake to expand high-cost programs like 'counter detailing' that outsource that judgment and impose 'one size fits all' recommendations based on the assumption that doctors are not capable of making their own judgments," Coehlo writes. "As a person with epilepsy, I know that one size does not fit all, and I know the importance of good decision-support tools."

San Jose Mercury News: CER has Potential to Transform the Health Care System

6/10/2013

The San Jose Mercury News recently published an article on the promise - and the concerns - of comparative effectiveness research as overseen by the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI):

"Critics said they fear [comparative effectiveness] research could lead to health care rationing if the government uses the results to ax effective treatments simply because they cost too much. To address such criticisms, legislation discouraged the new institute from doing cost comparisons. That has erased many of the concerns initially raised by groups such as the Partnership to Improve Patient Care, a private organization formed in 2008 that includes representatives of drug manufacturers, device-makers and patient groups. Now the group's chairman, former Rep. Tony Coelho, a Democrat who represented the San Joaquin Valley area, said he wants to make sure that patients are involved in the new institute's decision-making and that doctors and patients can understand the research findings."

PIPC Patient Blog: Andrew Sperling

6/4/2013

I am Andrew Sperling, Director of Legislative Advocacy for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), and a member of the Steering Committee for the Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC). NAMI is the largest national organization representing individuals living with serious mental illness and their families. Through our more than 1,100 affiliates in all 50 states NAMI is engaged in support, education and advocacy around serious mental illness.

Chairman's Corner: The Fight Continues

6/4/2013

Ever since I was young, people turned their back on me because of my disability. Down but not out, I overcame this hurdle and have gone on to devote the past 40 years of professional life to fighting for the disabled in our country. But the fight to improve the lives of people with disabilities did not end there. Today, the fight continues

PIPC Patients Blog: Kimberly Minor

6/3/2013

Greetings! My name is Kimberly Minor. As the inaugural guest feature for the ‘PIPC Patients’ blog, I must give my highest thanks to Tony Coelho, Chairman of the Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC) for this excitingly new addition to PIPC – the PIPC Patients blog.

My story…

The PIPC Blog