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AHRQ’s Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Strategic Framework

AHRQ has developed a strategic framework for the Agency’s Patient-Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) Trust Fund investments through fiscal year 2029. The framework was developed in response to the reauthorization of the PCORTF and will guide future planning and evaluation of AHRQ’s PCORTF investments. The strategic framework aligns with AHRQ’s mission and broader goals of improving the quality, safety, equity, and value of healthcare delivery. The draft framework currently identifies five priorities for advancing healthcare delivery and improving patient outcomes.  These interrelated priorities are intended to achieve the proposed framework’s overall vision of delivering equitable whole-person care across patients’ lifespans.

This graphic is a table of the Strategic Framework to Guide AHRQ’s PCORTF Investments. The top horizontal column details the Mission, Overarching Vision, and High-Level Goal of the Strategy: The Mission is to synthesize and support the dissemination of evidence into practice and train the next generation of patient-centered outcomes researchers. The Overarching Vision is equitable whole-person care across the lifespan. The High-Level Goal is to improve health outcomes by promoting high-value, safe, evidence-based, integrated, coordinated, team-based-patient-centered care with a focus on underserved populations. The second horizontal column identifies five High-Level Priorities and Desired Outcomes. The priorities and their respective desired outcomes are: health equity (Desired outcomes: reduced health disparities for AHRQ’s priority populations; engagement of underrepresented communities and training and implementation initiatives; and improved equity in access to needed care); prevention and improved care of patients with chronic conditions (Desired outcomes: Increased uptake of evidence-based preventive services, early intervention, and secondary prevention; decreased fragmentation of care for patients with multiple chronic conditions; and co-design of innovations in care with patients and communities); patient, family, and provider experience of care that enhances trust in the healthcare system (Desired outcomes: Improved patient/family engagement and reported experience of care; focus on whole-person care with focus on mental health and social determinants of health; and improved provider wellness and retention); high-quality, safe care that is aligned with national health priorities (Desired outcomes: transformation of healthcare organizations into learning health systems; increased uptake of evidence-based practices that strengthen healthcare quality, safety and value; and improved outcomes for targeted national priority conditions); primary care transformation (Desired outcomes: Uptake of new models of primary care, leveraging digital healthcare; integrated, team-based behavioral health; and identification and provision of needed resources for comprehensive primary care and uptake of evidence). The third horizontal column is Cross-Cutting Strategies for Achieving Desired Outcomes. Eight strategies are described: 1 Train and support the next generation of health services researchers with a focus on team science and advancing health equity. 2 Develop and maintain the AHRQ infrastructure to synthesize and accelerate evidence into practice. 3 Leverage and support innovation in digital health, clinical decision support, and new models of care. 4 Build data, measurement, and analytic capacity to benchmark and evaluate uptake and use of evidence in learning health systems to improve outcomes that matter to patients. 5 Accelerate the uptake of evidence in practice to optimize individual and population health and achieve health equity for all. 6 Disseminate evidence to Federal/State/local healthcare decision makers with targeted communication strategies. 7 Provide the evidence to inform policy changes needed for sustainable implementation and incorporation of evidence by healthcare systems, practices, and providers. 8 Evaluate the impact of PCORTF investments on care delivery, quality, costs, health outcomes, and health disparities.

Federal Register Notice Requesting Public Comment

Feedback received from the Federal Register Notice during the period of public comment (February 18 – May 24) is currently being used to refine AHRQ’s Strategic Framework and guide PCORTF long-range planning and future investments. AHRQ received feedback from patients, healthcare professionals, community groups, employers, health services researchers, dissemination and implementation scientists, communications experts, representatives from health systems, public and private payers, and other stakeholders.

Page last reviewed June 2022
Page originally created February 2022

Internet Citation: AHRQ’s Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Strategic Framework. Content last reviewed June 2022. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD.
https://www.ahrq.gov/pcor/strategic-framework/index.html

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