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  • Press Release

    AAMC Statement on Next PCORI Executive Director, Nakela Cook, MD

    John Buarotti, Sr. Public Relations Specialist

    AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) Chief Scientific Officer Ross McKinney Jr., MD, issued the following statement in response to the announcement that Nakela Cook, MD, has been named the next executive director of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI): 

    “The AAMC congratulates Dr. Nakela Cook on her appointment as the next executive director of PCORI. As a physician, comparative effectiveness researcher, and administrator, she brings a wealth of experience and knowledge that will help ensure the institute is dynamic in addressing the needs of patients, clinicians, and other health care stakeholders and continues to flourish.

    Under Dr. Cook’s leadership and with a new 10-year reauthorization, PCORI is poised to build upon its record of engaging patients and other stakeholders as key partners in its research to compare the effectiveness of medical treatments. By proactively disseminating and implementing the findings across the health care system, PCORI is transforming how some of the most prevalent diseases are treated while improving care and lowering health care costs for patients with type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic pain, and other conditions.

    We look forward to working with Dr. Cook and PCORI staff to continue advancing the institute’s mission to expand the evidence base that helps patients and clinicians make more informed health care decisions.”

    The Association of American Medical Colleges is a not-for-profit association dedicated to transforming health care through innovative medical education, cutting-edge patient care, and groundbreaking medical research. Its members comprise all 154 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 51 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and more than 80 academic societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC serves the leaders of America’s medical schools and teaching hospitals and their 173,000 faculty members, 89,000 medical students, 129,000 resident physicians, and more than 60,000 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the biomedical sciences. Additional information about the AAMC and its member medical schools and teaching hospitals is available at www.aamc.org.


    The AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) is a nonprofit association dedicated to improving the health of people everywhere through medical education, health care, medical research, and community collaborations. Its members are all 158 U.S. medical schools accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education; 13 accredited Canadian medical schools; approximately 400 academic health systems and teaching hospitals, including Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and more than 70 academic societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC leads and serves America’s medical schools, academic health systems and teaching hospitals, and the millions of individuals across academic medicine, including more than 193,000 full-time faculty members, 96,000 medical students, 153,000 resident physicians, and 60,000 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the biomedical sciences. Following a 2022 merger, the Alliance of Academic Health Centers and the Alliance of Academic Health Centers International broadened participation in the AAMC by U.S. and international academic health centers.