West Virginia Clinical Translational Science

Institute Links Scientists and Teachers

Sara Hanks, Ann Chester, Summer Kuhn

What is HSTA?

Infrastructure

Community Based Organization 159 Volunteer Board Members

800 9th -12th grade students in 48 high schools After school club setting Complete annual research

projects Successful completion of the

program results in tuition waiver to WV state schools

67 teachers

14 Field Site Coordinators

4 Community Research Associates (Knowledge Brokers)

Community Research Associates (CRAs)

Background in high school education

Understanding of experimental design and statistics

Ability to relate scientific information to high school teachers and students

Work and reside in communities across the state

Ability to help scientists relate to HSTA and community

What do CRAs do?

Build partnerships between HSTA and researchers to promote community based research

Work with teachers and students on implementing research protocols

Act as liaison between community and research Open doors for scientists for data collection in hard to reach

populations Give communities a voice in the research process

Disseminate and translate knowledge between researchers and HSTA communities and vice versa

Facilitate IRB process

CRAs and the WV Clinical Translational Science Institute

•CRAs train community members on CBPR practices

•CRAs work with research teams to adopt community engaged strategies

•HSTA students teach and train their family members on CBPR

•CRAs guide research teams on disseminating and explaining research findings to the community

•HSTA students present annual research projects at Symposia yearly

•CRAs work with research teams to develop appropriate community engaged research protocols and IRBs

•HSTA students and CRAs recruit participants for CTSI projects

•Student research projects are designed with community needs in mind

•CRAs work with students and teachers in 26 communities across the state on CBPR projects

•HSTA projects network researchers from national & statewide partner institutions Connect

investigators, clinics and

communities

Study design and

implementation

Technical assistance

and training

Dissemination

CTSI Community

Engagement & Outreach Core

Services Delivered by

HSTA Community Research

Associates (CRAs)

Why do University researchers need community programs like HSTA?

NCATS: Science of Community Engaged Research: Future

Directions – Chris Austin MD, Director of NCATS

Diagnostics and therapeutics

Behavioral interventions

Develop, demonstrate, and disseminate innovative methods and technologies

NCATS and Community Engagement Across the Translational Spectrum

Observation to point of care intervention (T1)

Identify most important research questions

Recruit best researchers

Build partnerships

Complementary funding for research studies

Bridge gap between fundamental science researchers and patients

Clinical and translational research (T2-T3)

Help develop relevant and practicable research protocols

Foster community participation and recruiting research participants for clinical trials

Increase collaboration and communication within the CTSA networks and between key stakeholders (e.g., academia, public/private entities, and communities)

Community health and population research (T4) Adoption of demonstrably useful interventions (i.e. dissemination)

Adherence

Interface with research partners including PCORI, Collaboratory, AHRQ, etc.

A New Work Force for Community Based Participatory ResearchAdolescents can be vectors for change in their

communities

Students are able to conduct CBPR in the most inaccessible communities

The HSTA families offer new insights into public health issues

The infrastructure is in place and unique to West Virginia

Best Practices for Working with Community, Scientists, Teachers and Students

True Community Engagement

Communities’ agenda drives the research

Communities and their leaders are in a leadership role

Communities are involved in all parts of research plan

Mentoring

Constant mentoring occurs at 4 levels: Academic ResearcherCommunity membersTeachersStudents

Two-Way Communication

Respect

Student Driven

HSTA students as vectors for changeCommunitiesTeachers

Research ideas

Community voice

Questions/ Comments

Research reported in this presentation was supported by the National Institute Of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number U54GM104942. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.