Advancing research methods to better understand health literacy and health equity in digital communications

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SUMMARY The University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass Boston) and Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC) Partnership is primed for “Bridging the Divides: Innovations to Address Gaps in Cancer Disparities Research, Education, Outreach and Infrastructure.” Our goal is to pursue Partnership activities and research that will bridge the divides in cancer disparities science, research education, and outreach through innovative research, training, and practice, serving as models for translation at the state and national level. The Partnerships to Advance Cancer Health Equity (PACHE) program itself is a prime example of bridged divides: partnerships formed between institutions have enhanced the education of underrepresented population groups and provided well-established cancer centers with the necessary resources and research infrastructure to address cancer disparities. The specific aims of the UMass Boston–DF/HCC Partnership are to: 1) Advance Partnership transdisciplinary cancer and cancer health disparities research programs reflecting the theme “Bridging the Divides”; 2) Develop educational experiences for students and trainees from a diverse population typically underrepresented in biomedical careers; 3) Promote hiring and retention of diverse scholars, particularly those from underrepresented populations, by leveraging institutional resources; 4) Bridge research-community divides through innovative platforms: forming and engaging networks of community-based organizations to advance outreach drawing on state of the science from dissemination and implementation sciences (D&I); 5) Develop cutting-edge approaches to address data-absenteeism, the lack of representation of underserved groups in population-, community-, and genomics-based cancer and cancer disparities datasets and projects; and 6) Promote sustainability of partnership activities by reinforcing institutional support and grant matching with NIH- mechanisms and other sources of government, foundation, and philanthropic support.