The health secretary may not use PCORI's findings to deny coverage under Medicare, the federal health programme for the old.

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Some big names like Harlan Krumholz and Bob Harrington are sporadic tweeters, providing behind the scene glimpses at events like a PCORI meeting or an ACC Board of Governors meeting.

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But they also included a foundation built on the fortune of the co-founder of Intel Corp. (the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation) and a non-profit created by Congress and expected to give away roughly a billion dollars by 2015, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).

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