Multicenter research networks support a wide range of patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) activities. However, multicenter studies must address issues surrounding patient privacy and data security, in accordance with federal, state, and institutional requirements. Although these challenges can be addressed in part by governance, privacy-preserving analytic and data-sharing methods offer a new way to tackle them. Requiring only summary-level information to perform sophisticated analysis, these methods have potential to increase stakeholders’ willingness and ability to collaborate efficiently in multisite studies. However, significant gaps remain because these methods are not understood by most stakeholders and have not been systematically assessed in the context of PCOR.
