42 U.S.C. § 299b–37 — Dissemination and building capacity for research

(a) In general (1) Dissemination. The Office of Communication and Knowledge Transfer at the Agency (or another office it names), working with the National Institutes of Health, must widely share research findings published by the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (the "Institute") and other government-funded research relevant to comparative clinical effectiveness. The Office must build informational tools that organize and share these findings for physicians, providers, patients, payers, and policymakers, and must build a public database collecting government-funded evidence and research from public, private, nonprofit, and academic sources. (2) Requirements. The Office must share the Institute's findings and relevant government-funded research with physicians, providers, patients, vendors of clinical decision-support health IT, professional associations, and federal and private health plans. The materials, forums, and media used must: (A) Describe considerations for specific subpopulations, the research methods, the research's limits, and who conducted the research the Institute published. (B) Not be treated as mandates, guidelines, or recommendations for payment, coverage, or treatment. (b) Incorporation of research findings. Working with relevant medical and clinical associations, the Office must help users of clinical decision-support health IT quickly and easily build the shared findings into clinical practice. (c) Feedback. The Office must set up a way to get feedback from physicians, providers, patients, health IT vendors, professional associations, and health plans about how valuable this information and assistance is. (d) Rule of construction. Nothing here stops the Institute from making its findings public as already required under section 1320e(d)(8). (e) Training of researchers. The Agency, working with the National Institutes of Health, must build research capacity by running a grant program that trains researchers in comparative clinical effectiveness research methods, including systematic reviews and primary research like clinical trials. At minimum, this training must meet the methodology standards adopted under section 1320e(d)(9). (f) Building data for research. The Secretary must coordinate relevant federal health programs to build data capacity for comparative clinical effectiveness research — including clinical registries and health outcomes research data networks — to build and maintain a comprehensive, connected data network that collects, links, and analyzes outcomes and effectiveness data from many sources, including electronic health records. (g) Authority to contract with the Institute. Federal agencies and instrumentalities may make agreements with the Institute, and accept and keep funds, to conduct or support research described in this part — as long as the research is allowed under each agency's own governing laws.