Ellen Tambor, MA, and colleagues have recently published in Learning Health Systems a PCORI-funded study of clinician perspectives on participating in pragmatic clinical trials (PCTs). In One size does not fit all: Insights for engaging front-line clinicians in pragmatic clinical trials, the authors wanted to better understand how clinicians view their role in research in the context of health care delivery, and what might be the common barriers to engagement. The authors describe results from focus group discussions conducted with physicians, nurses, and other care providers as the first phase of their study. The second phase involved key informant interviews with PCT research teams and clinicians participating in ADAPTABLE (Aspirin Dosing: A Patient-centric Trial Assessing Benefits and Long-Term Effectiveness), the first pragmatic trial to leverage PCORI’s National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network (PCORnet).

Funding mechanisms that allow adequate time and flexibility for protocol development (eg, the UG3/UH3 model employed for the NIH Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory Trials) can allow for more meaningful use of clinician feedback. (Tambor et al. 2020)

This study partly arose from early work in the NIH Collaboratory’s Stakeholder Engagement Core, which was established to disseminate best practices and guidelines for conducting research studies in partnership with healthcare systems to a broad audience of stakeholders. Read more in the Living Textbook in Building Partnerships and Teams to Ensure a Successful Trial.