The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) is an independent, nonprofit, nongovernmental organization authorized under the Affordable Care Act of 2010 to help close gaps in research evidence that are needed to optimize patient and clinician decisionmaking and improve health outcomes. To enhance the nation's capacity to conduct comparative effectiveness research, PCORI has invested more than $100 million in the development of PCORnet, the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network. The centerpiece of the PCORnet initiative is a distributed research network that combines clinical data from electronic health records (EHRs) and data contributed directly by patients from participating networks located throughout the United States. A distributed network allows a spectrum of analyses to be conducted without the physical pooling of data, which remain behind the protection of each institution's firewalls.
Justin W. Timbie,Robert S. Rudin,Vivian Towe,et al. National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network (PCORnet) Phase I: Final Evaluation Report. 2015-01-01.