NCCU-RCMI Partnership with a Practice-Based Clinical Research Network

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NCCU-RCMI Partnership with a Practice-Based Clinical Research Network Abstract: North Carolina Central University (NCCU) was awarded its first Research Centers at Minority Institutions (RCMI) grant in September 2017 to establish RCMI Center for Health Disparities Research (RCHDR). This new RCMI Center focuses on biomedical and behavioral research with 3 full projects, a Research Infrastructure Core (RIC), Investigator Development Core (IDC) and a Community Engagement Core (CEC). To address COVID-19 related disparities, our RIC and CEC capabilities were leveraged to create the Advanced Center for COVID-19 related Disparities (ACCORD) and conduct health services research and community engagement to address vaccine hesitancy among underserved North Carolinians. The purpose of this administrative supplement is to further address widespread disparities with an emphasis on quality of clinical outcomes and improvement of systems of care delivery in primary care practices serving vulnerable populations. We will extend our RIC capabilities to develop a Clinical and Translational Unit (CTU) by partnering with local federally qualified health center (FQHC), Lincoln Community Health Center (LCHC) in the area of clinical research. The supplement will allow us to assess feasibility, acceptability and infrastructure needed for FQHC partnership with LCHC and other rural FQHCs toward a practice-based research network (PBRN) that will be fully operationalized as a CTU of NCCU RCMI. This CTU expansion to NCCU RCMI in partnership with our local and other FQHCs will provide the necessary collaborative clinical research infrastructure and environment to establish a NCCU/LCHC-led PBRN to conduct research designed to reduce health disparities, with findings of immediate relevance to primary care clinicians, readily translated into primary care practice, and scalable and sustainable for the benefit of many.