The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center Fran and Earl Ziegler College of Nursing students Jennifer Heck and Elizabeth Koldoff were selected and attended the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) 2016 PCORI Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. Both Heck and Koldoff are Jonas Nurse Scholars and Women Child Health Initiative Predoctoral Scholars. Each received a scholarship covering all expenses to attend the PCORI annual meeting. “I was honored and humbled to be selected to attend PCORI and then for a poster presentation. I learned so much about comparative effectiveness research and other patient-centered outcomes research concepts that I will be able to apply to my dissertation and future work as well as share with colleagues. It was an absolutely great experience,” said Jennifer Heck.
Elizabeth Koldoff thought the PCORI annual meeting was an eye-opening experience. “There is nothing like this face-to-face opportunity to learn about what they do and why they do it. Their commitment to generate evidence through comparative clinical effectiveness research will pave the way for more effective and meaningful interventions and an improved health care system. Throughout the conference, the voice of the patient was heard right alongside the researcher and clinician. As one family member stated, "We don't care about what you know until we know that you care." This speaks to the importance of patient engagement in our research. PCORI's investment in future researchers is obvious and the groundwork was laid for the successful submission of a future research project. This was one of the best research conferences I have attended, said Koldoff.”
More than 1,000 members of the healthcare community convened for two-and-a-half days of updates on the how scientists, patients, and other stakeholders are working together to make clinical research more useful and relevant. National thought leaders, researchers, patients, family caregivers, clinicians, and others discussed key trends in patient-centered research, promising progress in PCORI-funded studies, and efforts to improve research methods and dissemination and uptake of important research results.