Fostering Collaborative Community-Based Clinical and Translational Research—September 14, 2007

Workshop Summary

The California Endowment Center for Healthy Communities
1000 North Alameda Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012

The National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) convened a one-day workshop on September 14, 2007, at The California Endowment Center for Healthy Communities in Los Angeles, focusing on barriers to and enablers of effective academic-community partnerships for clinical and translational research. The goal of the workshop was to identify strategies and best practices for conducting collaborative community-based research, particularly in minority communities and other medically underserved communities where health disparities persist. Key topics of discussion included:

• Addressing racial, ethnic, and geographic disparities in clinical research participation
• Building community buy-in and trust to enhance recruitment and retention of research participants
• Development of practical research protocols that work effectively in community health care settings and address questions of relevance to the community, including chronic conditions with multiple associated morbidities
• Development of versatile and sustainable core research infrastructure (e.g., personnel, information technology and informatics tools) to enable and encourage community participation and leverage existing infrastructure, including increasingly advanced clinical information systems residing in safety-net community health center networks

A related NCRR workshop was held in Bethesda, MD, on May 15, 2007. The products of these two workshops will include specific recommendations for NCRR initiatives to enhance clinical and translational research in underserved communities. The workshops will also further efforts to strengthen existing partnerships and build new partnerships among government agencies, academic organizations, and private sector organizations that are working to improve health care and community health outcomes.