Clinical and Translational Research and Community Engagement: Implications for Researcher Capacity Building

Abstract

This research sought to better understand how clinical and translational research is defined and perceived by community service providers. In addition, the research sought to elicit how the perspectives of service providers may hinder or facilitate collaborative research efforts. The study employed a qualitative methodology, focus groups. A non probability sampling strategy was used to recruit participants from three neighborhoods in the Tufts University’s catchment area. Focus group findings add to the nascent body of literature on how community partners view clinical and translational research and researchers. Findings indicate that cultural disconnects, between researchers and community partners exist, as does mistrust, all of which serve as potential barriers to community research partnerships. This article suggests rethinking the business of community engagement in researcher, particularly as it relates to building research capacity to approach, engage and partner with communities.

Soliciting views of various communities on health research: a prelude to engagement in specific research projects

“…While formal focus groups offer a rich appreciation for characteristics of the community, interviews with CBO leaders could perhaps have served as a cost‐effective, reasonably accurate method of collecting information regarding their communities' attitudes to clinical research. This is consistent with others' findings that interacting with community‐based public health and social service providers can shed light on attitudes about clinical research and identify barriers to research participation . To minimize the risk that community leaders hold assumptions differing from perspectives of the community members, a few meetings with individuals in the community might be considered to confirm and contextualize input from community leaders.…”

Community Engagement in the CTSA Program: Stakeholder Responses from a National Delphi Process

“…A key element of the process is the anonymity, which is designed to limit bias and to center the discussion on the topic at hand . This method lends itself to exploring the value of community engagement in research, where power dynamics between the academy and community have been found to inhibit communication . Delphi assures every voice is heard and given equal weight.…”

Participatory Democracy, Community Organizing and the Community Assessment of Freeway Exposure and Health (CAFEH) Partnership

“…Communication barriers associated with language use also pose a challenge to CBPR partnerships [5]. Power is embedded within language [19] and language that is overly technical can serve to disempower communities and threaten trust [11].…”