Engage for Equity (E2) PLUS

Engage for Equity: Advancing Research Support for Institutional, Patient & Stakeholder Partnering). Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)  funding (2021-2023)

Project Partners: Morehouse School of Medicine, Prevention Research Center; Fred Hutchinson/University of Washington Cancer Consortium; and Stanford School of Medicine/Cancer Institute.  Community Engagement. Consultants include: Alan Richmond, Community Campus Partnerships for Health; and Tung Nguyen, University of California, San Francisco

Significance

While use of PCORI/community engaged/community based participatory research (CBPR) principles are growing, institutional commitment, incentives, and policies within Academic Health Centers (AHCs) that support patient stakeholder involvement is haphazard or minimal. Challenges include: 

1. Institutions and community engagement cores often do not have the capacity (e.g. tools, techniques, coaching,) for sufficient training for researchers seeking to engage in authentic patient and community engagement.
2. There is limited understanding of institutional structures or processes that matter most for promoting and sustaining PCOR using CEnR/ CBPR approaches.
3. There is no standard on how to achieve institutional commitment to health equity reflected within individual patient and CEnR projects, as they make up the “DNA” of health equity research.

Approach

The University of New Mexico with three national partners (see above), will seek to address institutional barriers using our evidence-based “Engage for Equity” metrics, workshops, and tools which have been validated at the partnership level to scale up to E2 PLUS. 

Objectives

Aim 1: Assess institutional factors in three distinct sites to promote and sustain PCOR using equity-based CEnR/CBPR approaches.

Aim 2: Implement E2 PLUS tools and resources, provide coaching for champion teams;  provide workshops for community and institutional partners (25-30 people), and track changes in research support capacities, policies, structures, and processes.

Aim 3: Co-create a community of practice for the three participating sites. 

Projected Outcomes and Outputs

• Short-term: Formation of champion teams with patient/community members; comprehensive analysis of institutional facilitators and barriers.
• Medium-term: Champion team engagement in coaching; development of action plans to leverage institutional changes.
• Long-Term: Enhanced capacity of champion teams to demonstrate actions to strengthen patient/community engagement; co-creation of community of practice.