Abstract
Background: As of today, 50% of Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA)-funded Academic Health Centers are engaging community clinicians through the practicebased research network (PBRN) mechanism, which has been identified as a best practice by the CTSA National Leadership. A PBRN is an organization of community clinicians who work together with researchers to answer meaningful questions that will improve patient care. Methods: This paper outlines the steps that were led to success during the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio's journey of developing four PBRNs over 3 years: (1) identifying network directors; (2) deciding who to include; (3) obtaining recruitment lists; (4) sending out mailers; (5) hosting the first PBRN meeting; (6) gaining institutional review board (IRB) approval; (7) launching a simple study; (8) returning the findings; and (9) formalizing the PBRN and moving forward. Results: CTSAs will continue to seek ways to effectively engage community members in the clinical translation process. Conclusions: PBRNs are a promising laboratory for generating research questions directly from clinicians, conducting meaningful research, and then disseminating the findings to the larger community to accelerate positive change.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 369-380 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action |
Volume | 6 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2012 |
Keywords
- Clinical translational science award
- Community health participatory research
- Community-based participatory research
- Health services research
- Practice-based research network
- Translational research
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Health(social science)
- Education
- Sociology and Political Science