The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) defines a primary care practice-based research network, or PBRN, as a group of ambulatory practices devoted principally to the primary care of patients, and affiliated in their mission to investigate questions related to community-based practice and to improve the quality of primary care. This definition includes a sense of ongoing commitment to network activities and an organizational structure that transcends a single research project. PBRNs often link practicing clinicians with investigators experienced in clinical and health services research, while enhancing the research skills of the network members.

Learn  more about PBRNS:

• Practice-Based Research — “Blue Highways” on the NIH Roadmap
• Moving Upstream — Health Extension and Primary Care
• Watch video of ORPRN's 2018 Convocation

AHRQ also defines practice facilitation as a supportive service provided to a primary care practice by a trained individual or team of individuals. These individuals use a range of organizational development, project management, quality improvement, and practice improvement approaches and methods to build the internal capacity of a practice to help it engage in improvement activities over time.

“A growing body of evidence supports practice facilitation as an effective strategy to improve primary health care processes and outcomes, including the delivery of wellness and preventive services, through the creation of an ongoing, trusting relationship between an external facilitator and a primary care practice.”
^{-Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Practice Facilitation. 2017}

ORPRN primarily uses Practice Enhancement Research Coordinators (PERCs) to deliver practice facilitation.

Quality improvement (QI) consists of systematic and continuous actions that lead to measurable improvement in health care services and the health status of targeted patient groups. The Institute of Medicine (IOM), which is a recognized leader and advisor on improving the Nation’s health care, defines quality in health care as a direct correlation between the level of improved health services and the desired health outcomes of individuals and populations.
^{-Health Resources and Services Administration. Quality Improvement. 2011}

Project ECHO® (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) is a telementoring education model originally developed at University of New Mexico to build the capacity of primary care clinicians to manage health conditions that they typically refer to specialty care. The Oregon ECHO Network, housed within ORPRN, is a statewide utility providing educational programs and support services utilizing the ECHO model.