The mission of the Outcomes Research Branch (ORB), one of three branches in the Applied Research Program (ARP), is to coordinate and sponsor research to measure, evaluate, and improve patient-centered outcomes of cancer care delivery across the cancer care continuum. ORB is particularly interested in morbidity and mortality outcomes, patient symptoms and health-related quality of life (HRQOL), patient experience of and satisfaction with health care, and social and economic consequences of cancer care. Cancer outcomes research is a relatively new field, and Outcomes Research staff have worked on a number of ways to help define the field and assist researchers to come to a common understanding of its parameters and conceptual underpinnings. Through a variety of initiatives and mechanisms, ORB supports the continued development of outcomes research in all aspects of cancer care, ranging from cancer clinical trials, observational research and surveillance studies of cancer prevention, early detection, treatment, survivorship care, and end-of-life care. ORB supports both methodological and applied research directed toward a variety of aims: enhancing the state of the science of outcomes measurement;assessing, monitoring, and enhancing the quality of cancer care at all levels -- the provider-patient interaction, the health care organization, and the health care system;translating research findings into care delivery products and strategies for use by public and private decision makers, who provide, pay for, regulate, set standards for, and make personal decisions about cancer care;and evaluating innovative programs designed to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of providing evidence-based practice throughout the cancer care continuum.
