Abstract
Preparing investigators to competently conduct community-engaged research is critical to achieving Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program goals. The purpose of this study is to describe the perspectives of members of a long-standing community engagement advisory board (CEAB) on investigators' readiness to engage communities and indicators of investigator competence in community-engaged research, in order to suggest core competencies to guide the development of CTSA-sponsored educational programs. Two 90-minute focus groups were conducted with a subset of members of a CEAB (n=19) affiliated with the Center for Clinical and Translational Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago. CEAB members identified a range of investigator skills and practices that demonstrate readiness to engage in community-engaged research. Eight competencies were identified that should be incorporated in providing education to enhance the readiness and competency of CTSA-affiliated researchers planning to engage communities in research. CEAB observations demonstrate the necessity of developing competency-based educational programs that prepare clinical and translational scientists at all levels for the important work of community-engaged research.
Highlights
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs) program aims to improve the translational research process and maximize the public health impact of scientific discovery [1]
The CTSA Enhancing Clinical Research Professionals’ Training and Qualifications (ECRPTQ) working group adopted the core competency framework established by the Joint Task Force for Clinic Trial Competency which includes 8 thematic areas that are considered critical for early career investigators: scientific concepts and research design, ethical and participant safety considerations, medicines development and regulation, clinical trial operations, study management, data management, leadership, and teamwork [5]
The purpose of this study is to describe the perspectives of members of a long-standing community engagement advisory board (CEAB) on investigators’ readiness to engage communities and indicators of investigator competence in community-engaged research
Summary
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs) program aims to improve the translational research process and maximize the public health impact of scientific discovery [1]. The Institute of Medicine [3] identified the need to create a clinical research workforce adept at the dual tasks of conducting rigorous clinical trial studies related to increasingly complex research questions and translating these results to the community. In order to provide leadership in workforce development, the CTSA Consortium for Enhancing Clinical Research Professionals’ Training and Qualifications (ECRPTQ) conducted a systematic review of training approaches to establish core competencies across the clinical research continuum [4]. The CTSA ECRPTQ working group adopted the core competency framework established by the Joint Task Force for Clinic Trial Competency which includes 8 thematic areas that are considered critical for early career investigators: scientific concepts and research design, ethical and participant safety considerations, medicines development and regulation, clinical trial operations, study management, data management, leadership, and teamwork [5].
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