Wikipedia:Wikipedia in Health Professions Education/PCOR

About Patient-Centered Outcomes Research
 Patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) is a form of biomedical research in which the involvement of patients and the impact on their well-being is a primary consideration in the design and contribution of the study. It is a field of research that has grown in importance, and the PCOR Institute (PCORI) supports and advocates on behalf of PCOR. It represents a type of research that is particularly well suited for citing as evidence in Wikipedia's health articles because of its concerns for patients, as many readers will share that interest. In striving to answer patient-centered questions, PCOR:
 * Assesses the benefits and harms of preventive, diagnostic, therapeutic, palliative, or health delivery system interventions to inform decision making, highlighting comparisons and outcomes that matter to people;


 * Is inclusive of an individual's preferences, autonomy, and needs, focusing on outcomes that people notice and care about such as survival, function, symptoms, and health-related quality of life;


 * Incorporates a wide variety of settings and diversity of participants to address individual differences and barriers to implementation and dissemination; and


 * Investigates optimizing outcomes while addressing burden to individuals, availability of services, technology, and personnel, and other stakeholder perspectives.

Health professionals, trainees, and educators like you, provide a key resource for translating PCOR into meaningful evidence-based medicine (EBM) resources for practitioners and the public. By increasing the extent to which Wikipedia entries on health matters are supported and informed by PCOR research, this budding community will help ensure that patients and their loved ones have access to patient-centered health information in making healthcare decisions.

Wikipedia can be a powerful tool with real-world outcomes, by training healthcare professionals to engage with medical and health-related articles and with the medical community through Wikipedia, educators like you can increase the impact of your healthcare courses for years to come.