Drive for patient preferences to improve healthcare decision making

Historically, R&D has been driven by the bottom line: profits and hard patient outcomes. However, a new movement in the device and pharmaceutical research industry is focusing on the patient experience. Jean Slutsky, chief engagement and dissemination officer, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), described the shift in focus: “Traditionally, medical research has largely been investigator-initiated and has not taken into account the decisional needs of patients or other stakeholders. Specific aims, key questions and outcomes usually evolve from investigator or funder priorities. This approach has led to innovation in treatments and helps steadily advance scientific knowledge, but it may not address the health needs most important to patients and communities.”

Shirley Ryan AbilityLab launches to move scientific research from bench to bedside

The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) has moved into a new research hospital facility and renamed itself the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. The former RIC now occupies a $550 million, 1.2 million square foot facility located on prime real estate in downtown Chicago. The AbilityLab aims to create a setting in which research scientists, engineers and other specialists can work side-by-side with clinicians and patients to improve treatment. This approach is a departure from traditional methods of organizing clinical practice and research, and will serve as an experimental model for medical institutions to observe.

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