Ambler, PA (May 27, 2015) — Kristin Voorhees, MA, Director of Healthcare Initiatives at the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA) has been selected by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) as one of the first members of PCORI’s new Advisory Panel on Communication and Dissemination Research.

Voorhees and the other 20 new panelists will apply their experience and expertise to advising PCORI, a nonprofit research funding institution, on its priorities for funding research to determine how best to communicate and disseminate clinical study results so that they are more quickly and effectively used to improve patient care.

The 21 panelists were selected from 135 applicants on the basis of their experience, expertise, and ability to contribute to the panel’s advisory tasks and responsibilities. In addition, they were selected to ensure representation of a broad range of healthcare stakeholder groups and perspectives, including people with health conditions, family caregivers, clinicians, drug and device makers, and researchers, among others. A list of the new panelists is available on PCORI’s website at www.pcori.org/CDR-panel-bios.

Kristin Voorhees became passionate about changing the healthcare system as a result of enduring years of misdiagnoses and ill health before a 2007 diagnosis with celiac disease. Today, she is the Director of Healthcare Initiatives at the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA), where she advances NFCA’s mission through developing, delivering, managing, and evaluating educational and research programs. At NFCA, Voorhees stewards multidisciplinary relationships in order to deploy a social entrepreneurial model that activates change in the landscape by addressing and solving key disparities. Her enthusiasm for influencing behavior change and core belief that patients have an active role in evidence-based medicine attracted her to PCORI. She holds a BA in communications from James Madison University and an MA in health communications from Emerson College/Tufts School of Medicine.

“PCORI’s efforts to improve how clinical research results are communicated will benefit greatly from the insights of this stellar group of individuals with such breadth and depth of expertise in in this area,” said Jean Slutsky, PA, MSPH, Director of PCORI’s Communication and Dissemination Research Program. “Through her contributions to this multi-stakeholder advisory panel, Kristin Voorhees will help us identify and prioritize research topics and ensure that our work remains patient-centered.”

Voorhees will travel to Washington, D.C. for the advisory panel’s first meeting on Thursday, May 28. The charter for the Advisory Panel on Communication and Dissemination Research, including its scope of work, is available on the PCORI website.

PCORI is an independent, non-profit organization authorized by Congress to fund research that will provide patients, their caregivers and clinicians with the evidence-based information needed to make better-informed healthcare decisions.

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PCORI Media Contact: Christine Stencel, Associate Director of Media Relations (202-827-7707 or [email protected]