Using a Participatory Approach to Develop Research Priorities for Future Leaders in Cancer-Related Precision Public Health

Abstract

Precision public health is an emerging discipline combining principles and frameworks of precision health with the goal of improving population health. The development of research priorities drawing on the strengths of precision and public health is critical to facilitate the growth of the discipline to improve health outcomes. We held an interactive workshop during a virtual conference bringing together early-career researchers across public health disciplines to identify research priorities in precision public health. The workshop participants discussed and voted to identify three priority areas for future research and capacity building including 1) enhancing equity and access to precision public health research and resources, 2) improving tools and metrics for evaluation and 3) applying principles of implementation science to support sustainable practices. Participants also developed future objectives for achieving each priority. Future efforts by working groups will continue the process of identifying, revising, and advancing critical research priorities to grow the impact of precision public health.

Next-Generation Public Health Genomics: A Call to Assess the Equitable Implementation, Population Health Impact, and Sustainability of Precision Public Health Applications

“…Lack of interoperability and harmonization of evaluation metrics across public health and clinical settings further complicates researchers’ abilities to pool data and study population impact of public health genomics applications. Thus, there remains a need to establish such standardized measures and metrics in the field [10]. Finally, there lacks capacity for public health genomics researchers – limited public health genomics training programs generate a limited pool of public health genomics researchers to move the field forward.…”

“…The field of implementation science, the study of methods to integrate evidence-based practices into public health settings, has the potential to inform the best approaches for ensuring the promise of public health genomics is realized. Over the past 5 years, calls for research at the intersection of genomics and implementation science have been raised, with attention to applications in public health [6][7][8][9][10][11]. In particular, implementation science frameworks, which increasingly include an explicit consideration of health equity [5,[12][13][14][15], can guide evaluations of public health genomics applications, our understanding of the factors associated with equitable implementation outcomes, and implementation processes.…”

Community Collaboration in Public Health Genetic Literacy: Co-Designing Educational Resources for Equitable Genomics Research and Practice

“…Mistrust of and misinformation about genomics, particularly in historically marginalized groups, must be addressed before genomic technology can be equitably applied to improve public health outcomes. Numerous studies have found that multilingual and culturally responsive educational resources could build genetic health literacy and awareness, and subsequently improve participation in research [12][13][14][15]. Research has shown the profound impact of fostering trust-based relationships and bidirectional communication, emphasizing the inclusion of communities historically marginalized and exploited by biomedical research, notably Black and African American people who have been systematically excluded from the advances made with their contributions [16][17][18][19][20][21].…”