Community Engagement

Core Description

The Community Engagement component fosters collaborative partnerships among three stakeholder communities that are vital in developing translational research and applying research findings to delivery of medical and public health services.

1. Lay Community comprises various segments of the state population defined by salient demographic or health-related parameters (e.g. place of residence, race/ethnicity, risk behaviors, medical diagnoses).
2. Health Practice Community comprises professionals and professional groups that facilitate clinical and public health practice (e.g. clinicians, hospitals, public health agencies, health insurance vendors).
3. Academic Research Community comprises university faculty, staff, and students researching the broad range of issues relevant to etiology and management of illness.

Collaborations among these stakeholder communities address three critical interfaces in translational research: 1) examining population and community data to identify research questions that address significant public health issues; 2) applying knowledge generated in laboratory research and preclinical studies to the development of controlled trials examining treatment efficacy and effectiveness; and 3) adopting evidence-based best practices in the delivery of health care and public health services.