PCORnet® Front Door

How do you access PCORnet?
PCORnet is a national resource available to everyone.

The PCORnet® Front Door is an access point for potential investigators, patient groups, healthcare organizations, clinicians and clinician groups, government, industry scientists, sponsors, and all stakeholders seeking to leverage PCORnet infrastructure and collaborate on patient-centered research.

Knock on the PCORnet® Front Door to access PCORnet

Tools to speed study start-up

Use these tools powered by PCORnet® Network Partners to accelerate research.

Common ways the PCORnet® Front Door team can help support your research needs:

Data Network Requests generally provide preliminary data to help design proposals or assess study feasibility.

  • The PCORnet® Front Door team contacts you to schedule a consultation and understand your data needs
  • If appropriate, the team will partner to develop your query for the PCORnet® Common Data Model, and securely distribute the query to PCORnet data partners. PCORnet data partners will choose whether or not to execute the query and will send back results.
  • Once data are returned to the PCORnet® Front Door, the team will meet with you to review your data report and answer any questions

Queries can take from weeks to months depending on the complexity of the request, availability of the requestor to address questions, and number of other queries in the queue.  Simple Data Network Requests are generally completed without charge.  More complex queries, including those as part of research projects are supported by those research funds.

The PCORnet® Front Door team can connect you with collaborators within the Network. You can seek sites for funded studies, partners to co-design research leveraging PCORnet, or find people with specific expertise.

  • The PCORnet® Front Door team shares your request by hosting an informational webinar to the Network
  • The team sends information to each network; each network then disseminates internally
  • The team collects questions and contact information and shares it with you.

The PCORnet® Front Door can advise you on site scope of work and budget parameters, however the requestor will generally execute any study-specific agreements with the sites that participate.

Do you need help understanding how PCORnet resources might help your study? You can request a Study Feasibility Review.

Requestors often want to understand:

  • What data are available for my project?
  • Can data from PCORnet be linked to other types of data sources?
  • How do I develop a budget for a PCORnet project?
  • What previous PCORnet projects might I learn from?
  • Are there master agreements or policies I should be aware of?
  • How should I describe PCORnet in my research proposal?

The PCORnet® Front Door team works with you to co-design projects, and connects you with subject matter experts from across the Network as needed.

Only studies that have PCORnet study designation may use the name and logo of PCORnet.

PCORnet® Studies generally are funded projects that:

  • Include two or more networks
  • Demonstrate how participants and patients are engaged throughout the project lifecycle
  • Are committed to broad dissemination of findings, including through return of results to participants
  • Agree to share study progress, performance metrics, and best practices with the Network regularly
  • Leverages the PCORnet® Common Data Model

To learn more, check out our PCORnet® Studies Fact Sheet.

Contact the PCORnet® Front Door to apply for PCORnet study designation.

Frequently Asked Questions