Evidence for Engagement (E2) PLUS

Testing Engagement Strategies to Promote Trustworthy Academic Institutions and Patient & Community Leadership in Research

FUNDING: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Science of Engagement
SOE-2023C2-3331

PROJECT PERIOD: September 1, 2024 - August 31, 2027

AMOUNT: $1.5 million

RESEARCH PARTNERS: Community Engagement Cores, Clinical Science Translational Centers:

University of Iowa
University of New Mexico
Virginia Commonwealth University
University of Kansas

University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
Pennsylvania State University
University of Arkansas Medical School
University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS:
Nina Wallerstein, DrPH
Shannon Sanchez-Youngman, PhD

CONSULTANTS:
Michael Muhammad
Tom Belin, Claude Rubinson

EXTERNAL GOVERNING BOARD:
Community/Patient Advocate Partners:
Sinsi Hernandez-Cancio, Ysabel Duron, Bridgette Hempstead, Diane Mapes, LaShawn Hoffman, Sarah Kastelic, Paige Castro-Reyes

Academic Partners:
Lori Carter-Edwards, Lorenda Belone,
Don Nease, John Oetzel, Philip Alberti

OBJECTIVE:
To strengthen institutional research support and patient/community leadership in research through a two-year E2PLUS intervention.

SIGNIFICANCE:
While previous UNM Center for Participatory Engage for Equity (E2 ) Community Based Participatory Research findings identified best practices that contribute to health equity outcomes of individual research projects, Academic Health Center (AHC) policies and practices to support and sustain engaged-research remain fragmented and highly varied, without a deep commitment to patient/community leadership in research.

APPROACH:
The University of New Mexico Center for Participatory Research (UNM-CPR) team, with eight national AHC partners, will test our innovative “Engage for Equity PLUS” (E2PLUS) engagement methods, working with champion teams and patient/community action groups (PCAGs) to:

Advocate for changes in institutional practices and policies within diverse contexts and populations to enhance authentic engaged research; and
Support community influence and power in the research process and in expanding their own organizing about their priority health issues.

ACTIVITIES:

Establish champion teams of half community and half academics (6-10 members) with UNM providing reflection, tools and action strategies.
Establish Patient/Community Action Groups (PCAGs) to provide their own input into needed institutional changes and to strengthen their own research capacity and organizing.
Provide workshops and E2 Toolkit for up to 60 participants, including champion team, advisory board members, leaders, PCAGs, and others to develop targets for change and actions.
Collect data from an Institutional Multi-Stakeholder Survey (IMSS) and interviews with leaders and focus groups with patient/community members and champion team to use data for working group advocacy to AHC top leaders for institutional changes in policies and practices.
Create a Community of Practice Meeting to inform co-learning and dissemination of results from champion team meeting in Albuquerque in 3rd year.
Use Qualitative Comparative Analysis and triangulation of IMSS survey data to analyze the impact of different conditions within Academic Health Centers and their community partners, in their actions towards strengthening greater patient/community leadership in research.

HISTORY:
A previous Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement award (2021-2023, #21068) assessed the feasibility of our E2PLUS intervention to confront institutional challenges and advocate for policy and practice changes.

Working with Stanford School of Medicine, Morehouse School of Medicine, and the Fred Hutch/University of Washington Cancer Consortium, we found E2PLUS approach to be successful in scaling up our previous E2 experience with strengthening individual partnerships and projects.

In the Fall, 2025, seven articles from our previous E2PLUS Engagement Award are part of a Journal of Clinical and Translational Science special issue on institutional transformation, with four E2PLUS articles providing analyses across institutions, assessing diverse contexts, survey responses, intervention achievements, and community perspectives. Each champion team from the separate institutions then produced their separate article with challenges, achievements and lessons learned.