NCCU RCMI Practice Based Equity Research Network (PBERN)

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ABSTRACT North Carolina (NC) is home to five Practice-Based Research Networks (PBRN) supported and maintained by large academic research centers and healthcare systems with no to very limited engagement with free community clinics and practitioners that care for uninsured patients. NC ranks #32 in the United States for health outcomes and is ranked the fifth-worst state for health care with alarming racial health disparities in infant mortality, diabetes, kidney disease, and many chronic and acute conditions. The North Carolina Central University (NCCU) Research Centers at Minority Institutions (RCMI) has successfully and effectively engaged underserved communities. This proposal aims to establish an RCMI-led Clinical Research Network for Health Equity (CRNHE) to address gaps in clinic-based research and improve health care for uninsured patients. This innovative CRNHE called as NCCU RCMI Practice-Based Equity Research Network (PBERN) will bring together college student health clinic, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), free and charitable clinics, and local public health departments, all of which extensively serve uninsured and vulnerable populations. The three specific aims for the UG3 planning phase entail constructing the PBERN. The Administrative core (Admin Core) will oversee and manage the PBERN including formation of a patient/community advisory board and an external advisory committee of providers, craft a charter for the consortium, and memoranda of understanding for partner practices (SA1). The Community Engagement Core (CEC) will aim to integrate voices of the community, patients, and providers through consortium activities and develop community-recommended health awareness and prevention programs using the NCCU mobile health units (SA2). The Clinical Research Implementation Core (CRIC) will provide training in clinical and health services research methods and support consortium members in areas such as biostatistics, data science and survey design (SA3). The CRIC will also partner with commercial population health management platform, to design and plan for electronic health record (EHR) integration (during UH3 phase) across network clinics. During the second (UH3) phase, the CRIC will implement a rigorous and competitive pilot project program (2 pilots for 2-3 years) and offer rapid cycle vouchers (RCV) (3-6 months) for quality improvement and implementation science projects (SA4) and execute plans for EHR integration, data storage and analytics for consortium members to accelerate integrated health services research, and measure and report population health metrics (SA5). The Evaluation and Dissemination Unit (EDU) will continuously assess and work closely with the 2 cores (CRIC, CEC) and RCMI Coordinating Center to develop common metrics and make recommendations to public agencies for successful findings (SA6). In sum, the proposed PBERN will dramatically increase practice-based research that seeks to achieve health care equity among North Carolina’s most vulnerable suffering health disparities.