Participant Perspectives on a Community Health Worker Intervention to Reduce Infant Mortality: A Mixed Methods Assessment of the Bronx Healthy Start Partnership.

Introduction: Healthy Start is an initiative to reduce infant mortality and improve birth equity throughout the US, in large part by deploying community health workers (CHWs) to conduct home visits and provide educational and emotional support to new and expectant parents.

Methods: A mixed-methods assessment of the Bronx Healthy Start Partnership (BxHSP) was conducted as part of a quality improvement initiative to understand client perspectives regarding the impact of BxHSP on short- and intermediate-term outcomes that affect long-term well-being. Phone interviews (n = 16) and online surveys (n = 62) were conducted in English and Spanish with BxHSP participants in 2020 and 2022.

Virtual Summer Undergraduate Mentorship Program for Students Underrepresented in Medicine Yields Significant Increases in Self-Efficacy Measurements During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Mixed Methods Evaluation.

The barriers that Black and Hispanic/Latinx students underrepresented in medicine (URiM) face while seeking biomedical careers have been identified, including lack of career preparation and social support. Yet it is unclear how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted their decisions and progress toward their occupational goals. Adapting to the precautions necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors conducted a mixed-methods evaluation of our 2020 virtual summer URiM biomedical mentoring program, using both quantitative and qualitative pre- and post-program questionnaires to measure the students' perceptions of their preparation and self-efficacy for applying to health professional schools.

Dreams Realized: A Long-Term Program Evaluation of Three Summer Diversity Pipeline Programs.

Pipeline programs are a well-known approach to enhancing health care workforce diversity and reducing health disparities. Few evaluations of pipeline programs include long-term outcome; fewer still, if any explore perceptions of students after completing such programs, to elucidate factors that contribute to successful entry into the health professions. The authors conducted a program evaluation of three summer diversity pipeline programs in the Bronx, NY, investigating both long-term outcomes and participants' hindsight perspectives of the impact of these programs on their career trajectories.

Asian Americans are less willing than other racial groups to participate in health research.

Background: Asian Americans constitute 5% of the U.S. population.

Community Experiences and Perceptions of Clinical and Translational Research and Researchers.

Background: Engaging communities in research is increasingly recognized as critical to translation of research into improved health outcomes. Our objective was to understand community stakeholders' perspectives on researchers, academic institutions, and how community is valued in research.

Methods: A 45-item survey assessing experiences and perceptions of research (trust, community value, equity, researcher preparedness, and indicators of successful engagement) was distributed to 226 community members involved in health research with academic institutions.

Community-Based Review of Research Across Diverse Community Contexts: Key Characteristics, Critical Issues, and Future Directions.

A growing number of community-based organizations and community-academic partnerships are implementing processes to determine whether and how health research is conducted in their communities. These community-based research review processes (CRPs) can provide individual and community-level ethics protections, enhance the cultural relevance of study designs and competence of researchers, build community and academic research capacity, and shape research agendas that benefit diverse communities. To better understand how they are organized and function, representatives of 9 CRPs from across the United States convened in 2012 for a working meeting.

Towards a unified taxonomy of health indicators: academic health centers and communities working together to improve population health.

The Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) program represents a significant public investment. To realize its major goal of improving the public's health and reducing health disparities, the CTSA Consortium's Community Engagement Key Function Committee has undertaken the challenge of developing a taxonomy of community health indicators. The objective is to initiate a unified approach for monitoring progress in improving population health outcomes.

The development of the Bronx Community Research Review Board: a pilot feasibility project for a model of community consultation.

Background: The Bronx Community Research Review Board (BxCRRB) is a community-academic partnership (CAP) between the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and The Bronx Health Link (BHL). Rather than asking clinical investigators to create their own individual process de novo, we have developed an innovative, structural approach to achieve community consultation in research planning, implementation, and dissemination that involves and educates the public about research.

Objectives: To collaboratively develop (1) an independent research review board of volunteer community residents and repre sentatives that tests a model of community consultation, dialogue, and "community-informed consent" by reviewing community-based research proposals; and (2) to increased understanding of and participation in clinical research in the Bronx.

Community representatives' involvement in Clinical and Translational Science Awardee activities.

Objectives: To understand the formal roles of community representatives (CRs) in Clinical and Translational Science Awardee (CTSA) activities, to evaluate the extent of integration into the organizational and governance structures and to identify barriers to effective integration.

Methods: The inventory tool was distributed to each of the 60 CTSAs using a secure web application.

Results: Forty-seven (78%) completed the inventory.

Racial and ethnic minority medical students' perceptions of and interest in careers in academic medicine.

Purpose: To describe diverse medical students' perceptions of and interest in careers in academic medicine.

Method: In 2010, the authors invited students attending three national medical student conferences to respond to a survey and participate in six focus groups. The authors identified trends in data through bivariate analyses of the quantitative dataset and using a grounded theory approach in their analysis of focus group transcripts.

Community needs, concerns, and perceptions about health research: findings from the clinical and translational science award sentinel network.

Objectives: We used results generated from the first study of the National Institutes of Health Sentinel Network to understand health concerns and perceptions of research among underrepresented groups such as women, the elderly, racial/ethnic groups, and rural populations.

Methods: Investigators at 5 Sentinel Network sites and 2 community-focused national organizations developed a common assessment tool used by community health workers to assess research perceptions, health concerns, and conditions.

Results: Among 5979 individuals assessed, the top 5 health concerns were hypertension, diabetes, cancer, weight, and heart problems; hypertension was the most common self-reported condition.

Community capacity building and sustainability: outcomes of community-based participatory research.

Background: For communities, the value of community-based participatory research (CBPR) is often manifested in the outcomes of increased capacity and sustainable adoption of evidence-based practices for social change. Educational opportunities that promote discourse between community and academic partners can help to advance CBPR and better define these outcomes.

Objectives: This paper describes a community-academic conference to develop shared definitions of community capacity building and sustainability related to CBPR and to identify obstacles and facilitators to both.

Developing a multidisciplinary model of comparative effectiveness research within a clinical and translational science award.

The Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs) were initiated to improve the conduct and impact of the National Institutes of Health's research portfolio, transforming training programs and research infrastructure at academic institutions and creating a nationwide consortium. They provide a model for translating research across disciplines and offer an efficient and powerful platform for comparative effectiveness research (CER), an effort that has long struggled but enjoys renewed hope under health care reform. CTSAs include study design and methods expertise, informatics, and regulatory support; programs in education, training, and career development in domains central to CER; and programs in community engagement.

Learning social medicine in the Bronx: an orientation for primary care residents.

Background: Primary care educators face the challenge of teaching the social context of health and disease to clinicians.

Description: Since 1975, the Residency Program in Social Medicine has trained clinicians to practice in urban underserved communities. During Orientation Month, 1st-year residents are relieved of inpatient duties and participate in learning activities addressing social and cultural aspects of health.

Training community health promoters to implement diabetes self-management support programs for urban minority adults.

Objective: To develop, implement, and evaluate a peer-led diabetes self-management support program in English and Spanish for a diverse, urban, low-income population. The program goals and objectives were to improve diabetes self-management behaviors, especially becoming more physically active, healthier eating, medication adherence, problem solving, and goal setting.

Methods: After a new training program for peers led by a certified diabetes educator (CDE) was implemented with 5 individuals, this pilot evaluation study was conducted in 2 community settings in the East and South Bronx.

Diversity in academic medicine no. 5 successful programs in minority faculty development: overview.

Despite recent drastic cutbacks in federal funding for programs to diversify academic medicine, many such programs survive and continue to set examples for others of how to successfully increase the participation of minorities underrepresented in the healthcare professions and, in particular, how to increase physician and nonphysician minority medical faculty. This article provides an overview of such programs, including those in historically black colleges and universities, minority-serving institutions, research-intensive private and public medical schools, and more primary care-oriented public medical schools. Although the models for faculty development developed by these successful schools overlap, each has unique features worthy of consideration by other schools seeking to develop programs of their own.