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Priyanka Desai

Pronouns: She/Her

Senior Research Scientist

Priyanka leads projects focused on implementation science and patient-centered outcomes research.

Priyanka is a senior research scientist in the Health Sciences Department at NORC. She has over a decade of experience in health services research with methodological expertise in systematic literature reviews and qualitative research. 

Priyanka leads projects and tasks focused on implementation science, patient-centered outcomes research, and clinical decision support (CDS). Currently, she serves as NORC’s Project Director for the Maryland Statewide Prevention and Reduction Collaborative, which is a quality improvement project among public health, academics, and acute care hospitals. She is the Project Director for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute’s PCORnet Assessment and Convening project, which is assessing user experience during PCORnet Phase 3. Priyanka also co-leads the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)-funded Clinical Decision Support Innovation Collaborative (CDSiC) Stakeholder Community and Outreach Center. She is working collaboratively with NORC partners to convene four workgroups; engage diverse perspectives across the CDS ecosystem; and develop products that will advance patient-centered CDS. 

Prior to joining NORC, Priyanka was a research assistant with the Minnesota Evidence-based Practice Center where she supported data abstraction, management, and synthesis for systematic literature reviews. She is a co-author of several systematic reviews funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. 

Education

PhD

University of Minnesota School of Public Health

MSPH

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Certificate in International Health Policy & Finance

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

BS

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Project Contributions

Maryland Statewide Prevention and Reduction Collaborative (SPARC)

Implementation and assessment support for a learning collaborative focused on Maryland acute care hospitals

Funder:

University of Maryland, Baltimore

PCOR Resource Center for Data Infrastructure

Bolstering federal efforts to expand and improve data capacity for patient-centered outcomes research

Client:

Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation

PCOR CDS Current State and Future Directions

Identify and disseminate learnings and opportunities to advance patient-centered CDS implementation

Funder:

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

PCORnet Data Convening

Exploring data infrastructure enhancements to support high-impact patient-centered outcomes research

Client:

Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute

AHRQ’s National Nursing Home COVID-19 Coordinating Center

Connecting AHRQ’s nursing home safety initiatives and the nursing home quality improvement community

Client:

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Landscape for Telehealth Under COVID-19

A landscape review and expert convenings to inform research into telehealth use and effectiveness

Funder:

Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute