A mixed-methods analysis to understand the implementation of a multistakeholder research consortium: Environmental influences on child health outcomes (ECHO).

Introduction: Large, transdisciplinary research consortia have increasingly been called upon to address complex and challenging health problems. The National Institutes of Health's (NIH) Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program developed multisite collaboration strategies to promote impactful collaborative observational research on child health. Team science and implementation science offer theoretical and methodological structure to answer questions about the strategies that facilitate successful consortia.

Evaluation of the First Year of the Cross-Sector Innovation Initiative: Lessons Learned in Advancing Cross-Sector Alignment.

The Cross-sector Innovation Initiative (CSII) funded 10 communities for 2 years to support public health, health care, and social services sector alignment and community engagement to improve health equity and population health. The CSII is founded on the idea that working in alignment across sectors, in partnership with the community, better positions agencies and the communities they serve to address health inequities in meaningful and innovative ways. This evaluation identified the activities that sites undertook during the first year of the program to align sectors and engage the community, and factors that facilitated and hindered those efforts.

Technical assistance for the evaluation of community-based HIV prevention programs.

Funding agencies are using technical assistance (TA) to strengthen the evaluation capacity of community-based organizations (CBOs) engaged in HIV prevention efforts. The authors used qualitative methods to identify the types of evaluation TA needed by CBOs, to understand CBOs' past experiences with evaluation TA, and to elicit ideas for optimal delivery of evaluation TA. Assistance in developing evaluation tools and data analysis were the most commonly cited needs.

Evaluation barriers and facilitators among community-based HIV prevention programs.

Funding agencies are using technical assistance to promote evaluation of their community-based HIV prevention programs. Using qualitative methods, we identified 11 factors that hinder and facilitate evaluation within community-based organizations (CBOs): staff perceptions, availability of funding, data collection, data validity, data utility, technical assistance, effects on services, effects on funding, staff skills, tools and technology, and expectations of the funding agency. Using these factors, we developed eight strategies to promote CBO evaluation.

Killed on the clock: a population-based study of workplace homicide, 1977-1991.

Background: This paper describes the epidemiology of workplace homicides in North Carolina, with emphasis on the circumstances.

Methods: Workplace homicide victims were identified by and data were abstracted from the North Carolina medical examiner system.

Results: Workplace homicide rates are highest for men, older and self-employed workers, minorities and specific occupations, especially taxi drivers.