Skip to Main Content

RTI uses cookies to offer you the best experience online. By and clicking “accept” on this website, you opt in and you agree to the use of cookies. If you would like to know more about how RTI uses cookies and how to manage them please view our Privacy Policy here. You can “opt out” or change your mind by visiting: http://optout.aboutads.info/. Click “accept” to agree.

Accept
RTI International
  • About
    • Office Locations
    • Executive Leadership
    • Corporate Governance
    • Partner with Us
      • U.S. Government
      • Clients and Funding Agencies
      • Industry and Commercial Clients
      • Foundations and Associations
      • Bilateral Agencies and Multilateral Banks
      • Universities and Academic Research Institutions
      • Suppliers and Small Businesses
    • Commitment to Quality
      • RTI's Client Listening Program
    • Ethics and Human Research Protection
    • Living Our Mission
    • Open Science Initiative
    • Veteran Opportunities at RTI

    About

  • Practice Areas
    • Health
      • Public Health and Well-Being
      • Health Care Transformation
      • Behavioral Health
      • Health Behavior Change
      • Precision Medicine
      • RTI Health Solutions (RTI-HS)
      • RTI Center for Community Health Evaluation and Economics Research
      • Health Equity
      • RTI Health Advance
    • Transformative Research Unit for Equity​
      • Equity Capacity Building Hub
      • Social and Economic Justice Research Collaborative
      • Narrative Research and Community Engagement Lab
    • Education and Workforce Development
      • Early Childhood
      • K-12 Education
      • Postsecondary Education
      • Career and Adult Education and Workforce Development
      • Education Policy, Systems, and Governance
      • Education Research Methodologies
      • Education Technologies
    • International Development
      • Energy for Development
      • Environment
      • Global Food Security, Agriculture, and Nutrition
      • Global Health
      • International Education
      • Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, Learning, and Adapting (MERLA)
      • Youth and Economic Opportunity
      • Building Resilience Against COVID-19 in Developing Countries
      • Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH)
      • RTI Center for Governance
    • Climate Change
      • Clean Energy Technology and Renewables
      • Climate Finance
      • Climate Justice and Equity
      • Climate Planning, Preparedness and Resilience
      • Climate Policy
      • Climate Vulnerability, Adaptation, and Mitigation
      • Economic Impacts of Climate Change
    • Water
      • Food-Energy-Water Nexus
      • Water Quality
      • WASH (Water, Sanitation, Hygiene)
      • Water Resources Management
    • Energy Research
      • Carbon Capture and Utilization
      • Biomass Conversion
      • Natural Gas
      • Energy Efficiency
      • Industrial Water
      • Syngas Processing
    • Environmental Sciences
      • Air Quality
      • RTI Center for Water Resources
      • Urban Sustainability
      • Toxics
      • Building Resiliency in the FEW Nexus
      • Climate Change Sciences and Analysis
      • Environmental Policy
      • Environmental Justice
      • Sustainable Materials & Waste Management Solutions
    • Justice Research and Policy
      • RTI Center for Community Safety and Crime Prevention
      • RTI Center for Policing Research and Investigative Science
      • Child Well-Being and Family Strengthening
      • RTI Center for Forensic Sciences
      • Evidence-Based Strategies to Reduce Firearm Violence
    • Food Security and Agriculture
      • Market Systems Strengthening
      • Food Safety
      • Food and Nutrition
      • Global Food Security, Agriculture, and Nutrition
      • Climate-Smart Agriculture
      • Agricultural Innovation
      • Obesity Prevention
    • Innovation Ecosystems
      • Innovation Advising
      • Innovation for Economic Growth
      • Innovation for Emerging and Developing Economies
      • Innovation for Organizations
      • Research, Technology, and Innovation Policy
      • Technology Acceleration
    • Military Support
      • Military Behavioral Health
      • Military Health and Human Performance
      • Military Sexual Assault, Harassment, and Domestic Violence Prevention
      • Wearable Sensor Technologies
      • Military Health System Transformation
      • North Carolina Center for Optimizing Military Performance

    Practice Areas

  • Services + Capabilities
    • Surveys and Data Collection
      • Survey Design
      • Instrument Development
      • Survey Methodologies
      • Data Collection
      • Establishment Surveys
      • Health Registries
      • Data Analysis and Reporting
      • Research Operations Center
    • Statistics and Data Science
      • Survey Statistics
      • Environmental Statistics
      • Coordinating Centers for Multisite Studies
      • Analysis and Design of Complex Data
      • Biostatistics
      • RTI Center for Data Science
    • Evaluation, Assessment and Analysis
      • Evaluation Design and Execution
      • Advanced Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods
      • Evaluation, Monitoring, and Assessment
      • Economic Analysis
      • Evaluating Communication Interventions and Campaigns
      • Evidence Synthesis for Policy and Practice
      • Risk Assessment and Prediction
    • Program Design and Implementation
      • Systems Strengthening and Scaling
      • Capacity Assessment and Building
      • Policy Reform Support
      • Curriculum and Teacher Professional Development
      • Interventions and Prevention Programs
      • Implementation Science
    • Digital Solutions for Social Impact
      • Human-Centered Design of Digital Solutions
      • Digital Product Development
      • Digital Communication Campaigns
      • Digital Data Analytics
    • Research Technologies
      • Survey Technologies
      • Data Management and Decision Support Systems
      • Geospatial Science, Technology, and Visualization
      • ICT for Limited-Resource Settings
      • Mobile Applications
      • Web Applications
      • Bioinformatics
      • Interactive Computing
    • Drug Discovery and Development
      • Medicinal Chemistry
      • Molecular Design and Cheminformatics
      • Behavioral Pharmacology
      • Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics (DMPK)
      • In Vitro Pharmacology, Bioassay Development, and High-Throughput Screening (HTS)
      • Isotope Labeling
      • Regulatory Consulting and Support for Medical Products
    • Analytical Laboratory Sciences
      • Bioanalytical and Toxicology Research
      • Forensic Sciences
      • Physicochemical Characterizations
      • Metabolomics
      • Proficiency Testing and Reference Materials
      • Microbiology
      • Analytical Chemistry and Pharmaceutics
    • Engineering & Technology R&D
      • Biomedical Technologies
      • Decarbonization Sciences
      • Environmental Exposure & Protection
      • Materials & Environment
      • Sustainable Energy Solutions

    Services + Capabilities

  • Impact
    • Newsroom
    • Insights Blog
    • Events
    • Publications
    • RTI Press
      • About the RTI Press
      • Instructions for Authors
      • RTI Press Collections
    • Projects
    • Global Reach
      • Asia
      • Eastern Europe and Central Asia
      • RTI International India
      • Africa
      • Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
      • Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)

    Impact

  • Experts
    • Our Experts
    • In-Depth With Our Experts
    • Related News
    • Experts In the Media
    • RTI Fellow Program

    Experts

  • Emerging Issues
    • COVID-19 Research
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Global Health Security
    • Cannabis Research
    • Opioid Research
      • Interventions for Opioid Use Disorders
      • Preventing Opioid Misuse and Overdose
      • Treating Opioid Use Disorders
    • Policing Research and Investigative Science
    • Drone Research and Application
    • E-cigarette Research
    • Zika Virus Research
    • Integrated Governance

    Emerging Issues

  • COVID-19 Research + Response
  • Global Reach
  • Insights Blog
  • Newsroom
  • RTI Press
  • Publications
  • Partner With Us
  • Careers
  • Facebook IconTwitter IconInstagram IconYouTube IconLinkedin Icon
Impact

Patient-Centered Clinical Decision Support Learning Network (PCCDS Learning Network)

  • Home
  • Impact
  • Patient-Centered Clinical Decision Support Learning Network (PCCDS Learning Network)

Building opportunities for better-informed health-care decisions

Every day, millions of patients in the United States and around the world make health-related judgments that affect their lives, and they would benefit from information that helps them make better decisions. That’s why improved access to their health data, matched to the best evidence that medical research can offer, is so critical.

Research shows that clinical decision support (CDS), that is, processes for enhancing health-related decisions and actions using evidence-based information, reduces costs, improves quality, and reduces medical errors in clinical settings. However, these benefits do not adequately take into consideration health decisions and outcomes that matter most to patients. To change this, we’ve been working on behalf of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to promote CDS that addresses both clinician- and patient-centered decisions, actions, and outcomes. We call this patient-centered clinical decision support (PCCDS).

Establishing a Learning Network for Patient-Centered Clinical Decision Support

The PCCDS Learning Network is a four-year, AHRQ-funded cooperative agreement the purpose of which is to inform and connect PCCDS stakeholders. The network’s goal is to advance activities aimed at improving evidence-based care decisions for patients, their clinicians, and their caregivers. An example might be promoting smartphone applications that make it easier for patients and their care teams to identify and implement effective options for chronic conditions like diabetes.

To help organize the wide-ranging field of patient-centered care and the efforts of the PCCDS Learning Network, we’ve engaged multiple stakeholders in developing an Analytical Framework for Action. The framework orients our discussions with patients, clinicians, policymakers, and others to determine where important work has already been done, where there are gaps in the development of PCCDS activities, and where there are opportunities to do more.

Why Patient-Centered Clinical Decision Support and Not Just Clinical Decision Support?

What differentiates PCCDS from CDS is its focus on the patient’s viewpoint and how patients can use evidence to inform their own care decisions in partnership with clinicians and other caregivers. For example, evidence shows that patients with a family history of diabetes value information that helps describe their genetic risk and steps toward prevention. In the case of hypertension, patients value information about self-management and monitoring.

A PCCDS intervention for blood-pressure monitoring would involve a patient gathering home blood-pressure readings and transmitting those readings to a doctor, so the resulting electronic health record would highlight any worrying results (as determined by a patient’s care plan). The PCCDS would deliver recommended care plans for both the patient and the clinician to consider and discuss together.

Similarly, for a patient living with chronic pain who is on pain-management drugs daily, information about daily dosing and pain relief may be useful. A smartphone application, shared between patient and provider, could reinforce safe morphine-dosing information, provide pain- level self-monitoring tools, and link to other pain-management resources.

The following factors are central to making PCCDS recommendations:

  • Knowledge: Evidence-based research findings, like comparative effectiveness research and patient-centered outcomes research
  • Data: Patient-generated health data, patient-reported outcomes and preferences, and patient-specific social/environmental/genetic/cultural factors as they affect individual patient health
  • Use: Patient (and/or caregiver) involvement in consuming and applying the decision support provided (for example, information directed at patients/caregivers or for shared decision making)

Making Resources Available to Patients and Providers

The PCCDS Learning Network recently launched an online resource center with the goal of disseminating resources and ongoing initiatives in PCCDS. The resource center is an ever-growing library of links within key categories:

  • Evidence: Findings and evidence-based guidelines to enhance clinical care that could be implemented via PCCDS
  • Standards/Tools: Rules, methods, and utilities that could be used for structuring or delivering PCCDS interventions
  • Artifacts/Repositories: PCCDS interventions such as tools to gather, transmit, and provide feedback and guidance on patient-generated health data and collections of such artifacts
  • Initiatives/Literature: Material describing development, implementation, and results from specific PCCDS interventions or approaches more broadly

Anyone can contribute to the resource center via the PCCDS Learning Network’s website.

Promoting the Science of Patient-Centered Clinical Decision Support

The PCCDS Learning Network has also launched a special section, Better Decisions Together, in eGEMs, an online and open-access journal that features peer-reviewed articles about decision support and electronic health data. The special section will disseminate compelling PCCDS findings, methods, and strategies to shrink the gap between research and use in patient care. The first call for papers ends on February 16, 2018.

The future work of the PCCDS Learning Network will focus on highlighting efforts that leverage PCCDS in areas like opioid use and the prevention of chronic diseases.

Share

Clients

  • Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

Our Experts

Laura Marcial Research Health IT Scientist
Joshua Richardson
Joshua Richardson Research Health IT Scientist
Beth Lasater Research Health IT Scientist

Practice Areas

Health Behavior Change Health Care Transformation Public Health and Well-Being

Services

Digital Solutions for Social Impact

Learn More

PCCDS Learning Network Website

eGEMS

RTI Logo
Partner With Us
  • US Government
  • Commercial
  • Foundations & Associations
  • Multilateral Donors
  • Universities
  • Suppliers
Site
  • Privacy Policy
  • Security Policy
  • Site Map
  • Terms of Use
  • Accessibility
  • Contact Us
Contact Us
Facebook Icon Twitter Icon Instagram Icon YouTube Icon Linkedin Icon
delivering the promise of science
for global good
RTI Health Solutions RTI Innovation Advisors RTI Health Advance

© 2023 RTI International. RTI International is a trade name of Research Triangle Institute. RTI and the RTI logo are U.S. registered trademarks of Research Triangle Institute.