Dear PDQNet Project Team, As you know, there seems to be more and more conversation and activity about meaningfully having patients and communities involved in health and health care research. This message is about next year's International Conference on Patient- and Family-Centered Care, an ideal setting in which to feature the PDQNet Project, and the conference sponsor has issued a call for abstracts. The conference is not until next year, in late July, but the abstracts are due in 2 weeks, on July 31 (see enclosed brochure), explaining why I am sending this message out now - far in advance. This conference opportunity is especially salient because the sponsoring organization, the Institute for Patient and Family-Centered Care (IPFCC) received a recent award from PCORI to feature "exemplary partnerships with patients and families in PCOR and CER initiatives" and they will conduct significant outreach to Advisory Councils, etc. (see description of award, below). If we are selected, I think we should draw upon award funds to have at least one community partner rep. and one research team member attend. What makes this conference distinctive is that it attracts a large proportion of everyday people who are involved with health research. Note to Lyndee, Zsolt & Laurene: Would one of you like to take a crack at an abstract (instructions enclosed), or shall I? Below is a summary of the PCORI award that IPFCC received to help them expand their offerings at their annual conference. Creating Capacity for Sustainable Partnerships with Patients and Families in Research Principal Investigator: Marie Abraham, MA Organization: Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care PCORI Funding Announcement: Engagement Award Meeting and Conference Support State: Maryland Project Budget: $249,889 Year Awarded: 2015 Project Period: 24 months Project Summary: IPFCC will convene the 7th International Conference on Patient- and Family-Centered Care: Partnerships for Care, Interprofessional Education, and Research in New York City, July 25-27, 2016. A featured research track will highlight exemplary partnerships with patients and families in PCOR and CER initiatives. Best practices and resources for preparing patients, families, and researchers to collaborate will be shared. This track for partnerships in research will build on extensive pre-conference outreach to Patient and Family Advisory Councils, other patient and family advisors, consumer organizations, and researchers. This outreach is designed to build capacity for the Councils and researchers to serve as partners in research. Based on the learning from the outreach and the featured track, IPFCC will develop and disseminate practical training materials to build the capacity of other organizations and their patient and family advisory councils to create effective partnerships in planning and conducting research and in disseminating research findings. Barbara Barbara L. Norton, DrPH Assistant Professor of Research // Research Division Department of Family and Preventive Medicine // University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center 900 NE 10th St Room 2209 // Oklahoma City OK 73104 p 405.271.3733 | c 405.308.0801 | f 405.271.2784 | e [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>