In This Week’s Issue:
1. Save the Date for PIPC’s 5th Annual PIPC Forum on Building a Patient-Centered Health System:  November 19, 2014 from 12pm-2pm.
2. Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute's Chief Science Officer to Retire, click here to view the full press release.
3. PCORI: In the Field with PCORnet: The Greater Plains Collaborative Kickoff, click here for the post and InfoGraphic. 
4. Engaging Patients While Addressing Their Privacy Concerns: The Experience of Project HealthDesign, click here to view the article. 
5. PCORI: What Our Workshop Participants Are Teaching Us about Patient-Centered Research, click here to view the full post.
6. The Pink Sheet Daily: Reimbursement Briefs: Medicare Part B, PCORI Research, click here to view the article (subscription required). 
7. PCORI Blog: High-Tech Matchmaking: PCORI Rewards Apps that Connect Patients and Researchers, click here to view the full post.    

In This Week’s Issue:
1. PCORI Board of Governors Approves Budget, Seeks Comment on Process for Peer Review, click here to view the press release and here for the slides.  The Bloomberg article can be found here (subscription required).
2. PIPC Receives PCORI Response to Roundtable on Accountability for Patient Engagement, click here to view. 
3. GAO Names New Members to PCORI Methodology Committee, click here to view the press release and biographies of the new members.
4. PCORI Blog: Patient-Centered Research as a Bridge Between IT and Better Health Care, click here to view the blog.
5. PCORI Blog: World Alzheimer's Month: Improving Prevention and Treatment, click here to view the full post.
6. JAMA: Guideline: New HCV Drugs Should Go to Sickest Patients, click here to view the full article.
7. The Pink Sheets Daily: Value-Based Formulary In Use At Premera Blue Cross After Successful Pilot, click here to view the article (subscription required).
8. AP: Summit Focuses on Health Cost Innovations, click here to view the article.
9. WSJ: Medical Calculators Use Big Data to Help Patients Make Choices, click here to view the article (subscription required).

In This Week’s Issue:
1. PCORI Board Meeting Today in Washington, DC, click here for the press release.
2. MedPAC Considers Developing Payment Policy Based on Clinical Evidence, click here to view the article, click here to view PIPC’s report.
3. Inside Health Policy: House Republicans Say Increased NIH, FDA Funding Off Table For Medical Innovation Bill, click here to view the article.
4. Politico: Can Big Data and Patient-Informed Consent Coexist? Click here to view the article.
5. Medical News Today: How Is the Quality of Medical Research Graded? What Is Evidence-Based Medicine? Click here to view the article.
6. PCORI Blog: Engagement Awards: Changes in Timeline, click here to view the post.
7. PCORI Blog: On Contracts: Strategies to Develop that Winning Application, click here to view the post.
8. Upcoming Events and Webinars, see details below. 

Today, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) convened for the first day of their March public meetings. Among their deliberations, the Commission considered developing payment policy to promote use of services based on clinical evidence.  Discussion focused predominately on proposals to apply the defunct least costly alternative (LCA) policy to Medicare Part B drugs. ​

In This Week’s Issue:
1. JAMA: The PCORI Perspective on Patient-Centered Outcomes Research, click here to view the article. 
2. The New England Journal of Medicine: Updating Cost-Effectiveness — The Curious Resilience of the $50,000-Per-QALY Threshold, click here to view the article. 
3. The Pink Sheet Daily: Costly Drugs Prompt Attention To QALY Value Measure In U.S., click here to view the piece (subscription required). 
4. Knowledge@Warton: Health Care Outcomes: When the More Effective Choice Costs More, click here to view the post. 
5. Naples Daily News: The Doctor Is In: Big Data Now a Big Part of Healthcare, click here to view the article.