Evaluation of the long-term outcomes of the University of Michigan's Practice-Oriented Research Training (PORT) program.

The University of Michigan created the Practice-Oriented Research Training (PORT) program and implemented it between 2008 and 2018. The PORT program provided research training and funding opportunities for allied healthcare professionals. The program consisted of weekly didactics and group discussion related to topics relevant to developing specific research ideas into projects and funding for a mentored research project for those who submitted a competitive grant application.

Implementing a mentoring program for clinical research professionals: A novel professional development initiative for university health research staff.

Clinical and translational research relies on a well-trained workforce, but mentorship programs designed expressly for this workforce are lacking. This paper presents the development of a mentoring program for research staff and identifies key programmatic outcomes. Research staff participating in this program were matched with a senior mentor.

Evaluation of an online research best practices training for community health workers and promotoras.

Introduction: Community health workers and promotoras (CHW/Ps) have a fundamental role in facilitating research with communities. However, no national standard training exists as part of the CHW/P job role. We developed and evaluated a culturally- and linguistically tailored online research best practices course for CHW/Ps to meet this gap.

Reimagining a summer research program during COVID: Strategies for enhancing research workforce diversity.

Well-designed, accessible short-term research training programs are needed to recruit and retain underrepresented persons into clinical and translational research training programs and diversify the workforce. The Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research developed a summer research program, training over 270 students in 15 years. In response to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, we pivoted swiftly from an in-person format to a fully remote format.

The DIAMOND portal: An innovative platform for sharing translational research workforce training and assessment resources.

Although several initiatives have produced core competency domains for training the translational science workforce, training resources to help clinical research professionals advance these skills reside primarily within local departments or institutions. The Development, Implementation, and AssessMent of Novel Training in Domain (DIAMOND) project was designed to make this training more readily and publicly available. DIAMOND includes a digital portal to catalog publicly available educational resources and an ePortfolio to document professional development.

Guidelines for Evaluating Clinical Research Training using Competency Assessments.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Effective training programs in clinical and translational research (CTR) are critical to the development of the research workforce.

Assessments of Research Competencies for Clinical Investigators: A Systematic Review.

Although there is extensive research literature on clinical skill competencies and the use of competency-based frameworks for clinical research, the appropriate methods to assess these competencies are not as well understood. Our goal in this systematic literature review is to identify, compare, and critique assessments of clinical research competencies. Articles were included in this review if they examined clinical investigators or clinical investigators in training, focused on research-based skills, and included some form of assessment of research-based competencies.

Best practices in social and behavioral research: report from the Enhancing Clinical Research Professional's Training and Qualifications project.

Introduction: This article discusses the process of defining competencies and development of a best practices training course for investigators and clinical research coordinators who conduct social and behavioral research.

Methods: The first project phase established recommendations for training in Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and was done in conjunction with representatives from 62 Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) hubs. Diversity in behavioral clinical trials and differences in regulation of behavioral trials compared with clinical trials involving drugs, devices, or biologics necessitated a separate Social and Behavioral Work Group.

Piloting a nationally disseminated, interactive human subjects protection program for community partners: unexpected lessons learned from the field.

Funders, institutions, and research organizations are increasingly recognizing the need for human subjects protections training programs for those engaged in academic research. Current programs tend to be online and directed toward an audience of academic researchers. Research teams now include many nonacademic members, such as community partners, who are less likely to respond to either the method or the content of current online trainings.

Piloting a nationally disseminated, interactive human subjects protection program for community partners: design, content, and evaluation.

Funders, institutions, and research organizations are increasingly recognizing the need for human subjects protections training programs for those engaged in academic research. Current programs tend to be online and directed toward an audience of academic researchers. Research teams now include many nonacademic members, such as community partners, who are less likely to respond to either the method or the content of current online trainings.

An Internet-based tailored hearing protection intervention for firefighters: development process and users' feedback.

Background: Noise-induced hearing loss is a significant occupational injury for firefighters exposed to intermittent noise on the job. It is important to educate firefighters about using hearing protection devices whenever they are exposed to loud noise. Computer technology is a relatively new health education approach and can be useful for tailoring specific aspects of behavioral change training.

From research to practice: the importance of community collaboration in the translation process.

In order for effective interventions to make an impact on their target population, they must be successfully translated and disseminated to the organizations that will ultimately deliver them to those in need. Cuídate!, a culturally based intervention to reduce HIV sexual risk among Latino youth, was identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Prevention Research Synthesis (PRS) project as "best evidence" of intervention efficacy and selected as part of the CDC's Replicating Effective Programs (REP). The REP process consisted of the design, development, and field-testing of the Cuídate! program package in community-based, nonacademic settings.

Mexican adolescents' alcohol use, family intimacy, and parent-adolescent communication.

Despite widespread adolescent alcohol use, research on individual and contextual factors among Mexican adolescents is limited. This study describes the relationship between adolescent risk/protective factors, parent-adolescent communication, and their effects on alcohol use of 14- to 17-year-old adolescents living in Mexico (N = 829; 458 girls, 371 boys). In this study, adolescents reported that 55% ever used alcohol, 24% used alcohol in the past 30 days, and 10% reported binge drinking.

Perception and attitudes of firefighters on noise exposure and hearing loss.

Noise exposure of firefighters results in increased risk of hearing loss. Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) can be prevented by the consistent use of hearing protection devices (HPDs). However, little is known about firefighters' perceptions and attitudes on NIHL and HPD use.

Recruitment and retention of Latino adolescents to a research study: lessons learned from a randomized clinical trial.

Purpose: To describe facilitators and barriers to participation and retention of Latino adolescents in a randomized clinical trial.

Design And Methods: Participants were part of a randomized clinical trial designed to reduce HIV sexual risk behavior among Latino youth. Responses from 106 randomly selected respondents from the 3-month follow-up were content analyzed.

Selecting control interventions for clinical outcome studies.

In the current research environment the design and management of control groups is becoming more complex. The selection of a control group design is dependent on study goals, presence and quality of existing interventions, urgency of the problem or issue being addressed by the intervention, and factors related to the study site. The purpose of the presentation is to identify various approaches to the design of control groups in experimental studies and to identify their strengths, limitations, and applications.

Effects of booster interventions on factory workers' use of hearing protection.

Background: The provision of reinforcements or boosters to interventions is seen as a logical approach to enhancing or maintaining desired behavior. Empirical studies, however, have not confirmed the effectiveness of boosters nor assessed the optimum number of boosters or the timing for their delivery.

Objectives: This randomized controlled trial contrasted the effect of four booster conditions (a).

Effectiveness of a tailored intervention to increase factory workers' use of hearing protection.

Background: In the United States it is estimated that more than 30 million workers are exposed to harmful levels of noise on the job. When engineering or administrative controls cannot be used to reduce noise, workers should always use hearing protection devices (HPDs) when exposed to loud noise to prevent noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). Previous research has shown that workers do not always use HPDs when required; therefore, it is essential that workers assume personal responsibility for preventing NIHL by increasing their use of HPDs.