January 2026

Careful, Kind, and Connected: Toward a Common Engagement Model

“The time for incremental change has passed; we need transformational action that places patient partnership at the center of how we conduct, fund, and evaluate health research.”

In a recent special issue of Medical Care focused on PCORnet, patient partners from all across the network call for “deeper, more authentic” patient engagement across the clinical research landscape. PCORnet is unique, in that patient partners serve as voting members of the Steering Committee, sharing authority with principal investigators from each CRN. Despite these advances in patient engagement, varying resources and contexts across the CRNs creates challenges for achieving consistent engagement across the network. In response, the eight patient representatives on the PCORnet Steering Committee are working with PCORnet partners to create a “Common Engagement Model”. Analogous to the PCORnet Common Data Model, in which data from millions of patient encounters are standardized into a common format, the Common Engagement Model operationalizes PCORI’s Foundational Expectations for Partner Engagement into a set of standards that can be applied across networks and institutions.

The Medical Care article also highlights key patient engagement initiatives across PCORnet, including the MyPaTH StoryBooth, while also listing lessons learned from the first decade of patient partnership. Congratulations to our patient partners for this informative and inspiring article!

To read the article, click here

Click here for more information about PCORnet’s Patient Partners.

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