Research-Community Workshops
Monthly mini-retreats: A bi-monthly daylong mini-retreat for scientists and community members representing each of the six community-based research units, as well as laboratory and clinical research scientists from other ACTSI components and other community programs. In addition, the retreats are open to interested researchers and representatives of participating community entities community health centers, private practices, community/neighborhood representatives, and public agencies such as health departments are included. The mini-retreats serve as 'incubators' for projects that cut across disciplines, across institutions, and across communities. The retreats culminate in the appointment of a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional task force responsible for generating a research proposal describing a new initiative. It is submitted to either the Pilot and Collaborative Translational and Clinical Studies Program or an external agency for funding.
Multidisciplinary Task Forces: The afternoon discussion triggers the appointment of a multidisciplinary task force to follow up on the day's discussion by working toward the generation of a research proposal that is either funded as a pilot project by the ACTSI or will be submitted to a funding agency. Task force members should represent several disciplines, at least three of the six research units, and at least two of the three academic institutions.
Surveillance and Monitoring: Disparities research must move beyond improving process measures on patients within clinical settings or research participants in community settings, to measuring population health outcomes for high-disparity populations at the local community level. Many studies have improved documentation of asthma environmental trigger counseling or peak flow testing within a safety-net primary care practice, or improvement in knowledge or stage-of-change among participants in a health education project. However, to reduce disparities, these interventions should translate into reductions in emergency department visits and hospital admissions for low-income children living within the zip codes served by that health center, or into increases in screening rates or reductions in smoking rates in a defined community.