Fielding the research participant perception survey to evaluate a culturally tailored Latinx cohort study.

Introduction: Latinx populations are underrepresented in clinical research. Asking Latinx research participants about their research experiences, barriers, and facilitators could help to improve research participation for these populations.

Methods: The Salud Estres y Resilencia (SER) Hispano cohort study is a longitudinal cohort study of young adult Latinx immigrants whose design and conduct were tailored for their study population.

Effect of the DASH diet on the sodium-chloride cotransporter and aquaporin-2 in urinary extracellular vesicles.

The dietary approach to stop hypertension (DASH) diet combines the antihypertensive effect of a low sodium and high potassium diet. In particular, the potassium component of the diet acts as a switch in the distal convoluted tubule to reduce sodium reabsorption, similar to a diuretic but without the side effects. Previous trials to understand the mechanism of the DASH diet were based on animal models and did not characterize changes in human ion channel protein abundance.

Empowering the Participant Voice (EPV): Design and implementation of collaborative infrastructure to collect research participant experience feedback at scale.

Empowering the Participant Voice (EPV) is an NCATS-funded six-CTSA collaboration to develop, demonstrate, and disseminate a low-cost infrastructure for collecting timely feedback from research participants, fostering trust, and providing data for improving clinical translational research. EPV leverages the validated Research Participant Perception Survey (RPPS) and the popular REDCap electronic data-capture platform. This report describes the development of infrastructure designed to overcome identified institutional barriers to routinely collecting participant feedback using RPPS and demonstration use cases.

Molecular Epidemiologic and Geo-Spatial Characterization of Cultured from Skin and Soft Tissue Infections from United States-Born and Immigrant Patients Living in New York City.

(1) Background: With increasing international travel and mass population displacement due to war, famine, climate change, and immigration, pathogens, such as (), can also spread across borders. Methicillin-resistant (MRSA) most commonly causes skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs), as well as more invasive infections. One clonal strain, USA300, originating in the United States, has spread worldwide.

Building an infrastructure to support the development, conduct, and reporting of informative clinical studies: The Rockefeller University experience.

Introduction: Clinical trials are a vital component of translational science, providing crucial information on the efficacy and safety of new interventions and forming the basis for regulatory approval and/or clinical adoption. At the same time, they are complex to design, conduct, monitor, and report successfully. Concerns over the last two decades about the quality of the design and the lack of completion and reporting of clinical trials, characterized as a lack of "informativeness," highlighted by the experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, have led to several initiatives to address the serious shortcomings of the United States clinical research enterprise.

Implementing DASH-Aligned Meals and Self-Measured Blood Pressure to Reduce Hypertension at Senior Centers: A RE-AIM Analysis.

Low-income, minority seniors face high rates of hypertension that increase cardiovascular risk. Senior centers offer services, including congregate meals, that can be a valuable platform to reach older adults in underserved communities. We implemented two evidence-based interventions not previously tested in this setting: DASH-aligned congregate meals and Self-Measured Blood Pressure (SMBP), to lower blood pressure (BP) at two senior centers serving low-income, racially diverse communities.

Serum aldosterone and urine electrolytes dynamics in response to DASH diet intervention - An inpatient mechanistic study.

Background: Dietary approach to stop hypertension (DASH) diet reduces blood pressure (BP) as effectively as one antihypertensive drug, yet its mechanism of action was never fully characterized.

Methods: We designed a translational inpatient trial to elucidate the biological pathway leading from nutritional change, through hormonal response, reversal of urine electrolytes ratio, to BP reduction.

Results: A single-center open-label interventional trial.

Implementing DASH-aligned Congregate Meals and Self-Measured Blood Pressure in two senior centers: An open label study.

Background And Aims: Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) poses significant health risks for seniors, especially among low-income and minority communities. Senior centers offer multiple services. We tested whether implementing two evidence-based interventions- DASH-aligned meals provided through an existing congregate meal program, and support for home Self-Measured Blood Pressure (SMBP) monitoring-lowers blood pressure among participants at two senior centers serving low-income, racially diverse communities.

Effect of Normalizing eGFR to Standard Body Surface Area on Rates of Obesity-Related Hyperfiltration among Diverse Female Adolescents.

Introduction: Obesity is more prevalent among African American individuals, increasing the risk for cardiorenal morbidity. We explored interactions between race, BMI, and the risk of hyperfiltration associated with obesity-related glomerulopathy (ORG).

Methods: We created a cohort of female adolescents from electronic health records.

Obesity Related Glomerulopathy in Adolescent Women: The Effect of Body Surface Area.

Background: Adolescent obesity, a risk factor for cardiorenal morbidity in adulthood, has reached epidemic proportions. Obesity-related glomerulopathy (ORG) has an early reversible stage of hyperfiltration. Age-appropriate formulae for eGFR, which are standardized to ideal body surface area (BSA) and provide assessment of kidney function in ml/min/1.

Stakeholder Engagement In a Comparative Effectiveness/Implementation Study to Prevent Infection Recurrence: CA-MRSA Project (CAMP2).

Background: Methicillin-resistant or methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus skin and soft tissue infections pose serious clinical and public health challenges. Few protocols exist for outpatient education, decolonization and decontamination.

Objectives: This trial implemented infection prevention protocols in homes via community health workers/Promotoras.

The Recruitment Innovation Center: Developing novel, person-centered strategies for clinical trial recruitment and retention.

Clinical trials continue to face significant challenges in participant recruitment and retention. The Recruitment Innovation Center (RIC), part of the Trial Innovation Network (TIN), has been funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health to develop innovative strategies and technologies to enhance participant engagement in all stages of multicenter clinical trials. In collaboration with investigator teams and liaisons at Clinical and Translational Science Award institutions, the RIC is charged with the mission to design, field-test, and refine novel resources in the context of individual clinical trials.

The Rockefeller Team Science Leadership training program: Curriculum, standardized assessment of competencies, and impact of returning assessments.

The ability to effectively lead an interdisciplinary translational team is a crucial component of team science success. Most KL2 Clinical Scholars have been members of scientific teams, but few have been team science leaders. There is a dearth of literature and outcome measures of effective Team Science Leadership in clinical and translational research.

Comparative Effectiveness Study of Home-Based Interventions to Prevent CA-MRSA Infection Recurrence.

Recurrent skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI) caused by Community-Associated Methicillin-Resistant (CA-MRSA) or Methicillin-Sensitive (CA-MSSA) present treatment challenges. This community-based trial examined the effectiveness of an evidence-based intervention (CDC Guidelines, topical decolonization, surface decontamination) to reduce SSTI recurrence, mitigate household contamination/transmission, and improve patient-reported outcomes. Participants (n = 186) were individuals with confirmed MRSA(+)/MSSA(+) SSTIs and their household members.

Research informatics and the COVID-19 pandemic: Challenges, innovations, lessons learned, and recommendations.

The recipients of NIH's Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) have worked for over a decade to build informatics infrastructure in support of clinical and translational research. This infrastructure has proved invaluable for supporting responses to the current COVID-19 pandemic through direct patient care, clinical decision support, training researchers and practitioners, as well as public health surveillance and clinical research to levels that could not have been accomplished without the years of ground-laying work by the CTSAs. In this paper, we provide a perspective on our COVID-19 work and present relevant results of a survey of CTSA sites to broaden our understanding of the key features of their informatics programs, the informatics-related challenges they have experienced under COVID-19, and some of the innovations and solutions they developed in response to the pandemic.

Community engagement during COVID: A field report from seven CTSAs.

Introduction: Prior to the COVID pandemic, many CTSAs employed face-to-face interactions to conduct most of their community engagement (CE) activities. During the COVID pandemic, such engagement had to be curtailed and alternatives needed to be formulated. In addition, Community Engaged Research (CEnR) teams refocused their efforts to address this public health crisis.

Using attendance data for social network analysis of a community-engaged research partnership.

Background: The Rockefeller University Center for Clinical and Translational Science (RU-CCTS) and Clinical Directors Network (CDN), a Practice-Based Research Network (PBRN), fostered a community-academic research partnership involving Community Health Center (CHCs) clinicians, laboratory scientists, clinical researchers, community, and patient partners. From 2011 to 2018, the partnership designed and completed Community-Associated Methicillin-Resistant Project (CAMP1), an observational study funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), and CAMP2, a Comparative Effectiveness Research Study funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). We conducted a social network analysis (SNA) to characterize this Community-Engaged Research (CEnR) partnership.

Measuring quality and outcomes of research collaborations: An integrative review.

Introduction: Although the science of team science is no longer a new field, the measurement of team science and its standardization remain in relatively early stages of development. To describe the current state of team science assessment, we conducted an integrative review of measures of research collaboration quality and outcomes.

Methods: Collaboration measures were identified using both a literature review based on specific keywords and an environmental scan.

Impact of survey length and compensation on validity, reliability, and sample characteristics for Ultrashort-, Short-, and Long-Research Participant Perception Surveys.

Introduction: The validated Research Participant Perception Survey (RPPS-Long) elicits valuable data at modest response rates.

Methods: To address this limitation, we developed shorter RPPS-Ultrashort and RPPS-Short versions, fielded them with the RPPS-Long to a random sample of a national research volunteer registry, and assessed response and completion rates, test/retest reliability, and demographics.

Results: 2228 eligible registry members received survey links.

Delivery of the research participant perception survey through the patient portal.

Introduction: The patient portal may be an effective method for administering surveys regarding participant research experiences but has not been systematically studied.

Methods: We evaluated 4 methods of delivering a research participant perception survey: mailing, phone, email, and patient portal. Participants of research studies were identified (n=4013) and 800 were randomly selected to receive a survey, 200 for each method.