RADx-UP

The RADx-UP project, Reaching Vulnerable and Underserved Communities in the U.S. Southwest Through a Successful COVID-19 Community-Academic Partnership, tested and provided COVID-19 related services to more than 5,000 previously underserved patients. How? 🤝 an equitable community-academic partnership 💈 the involvement of local leaders 🗣 and the engagement of community health workers (CHWs) The intervention, named RAPID (Respectful, Action-oriented, Proactive, Inclusive, and Direct-resources) for its guiding values, was spearheaded by Equality Health Foundation. EHF coordinated a multisectoral coalition and engaged CHWs for their deep community knowledge, trust, and patient engagement capabilities. Read about their project in the recent supplement to the American Public Health Association Journal of Public Health, one of sixteen papers on community-engaged research. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gUBUwRsG

In their article, this RADx-UP team describes the project titled Return to School Diagnostic Testing Approaches, a partnership between the University of Rochester and a multisite school exclusively serving children and young adults 3 to 21 years of age with moderate to severe intellectual or developmental disabilities. The project grew out of a developing relationship—based on a shared interest in children affected by intellectual or developmental disabilities—between the school and the new University of Rochester Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (funded in 2020). The existing relationship brought together the University of Rochester and School leaders as equal partners from the outset for proposal planning and protocol development. Authors: Ann Dozier, Karen Zandi, Anne Pawlowski, Alexis Ross, Samantha Spallina, Jeanne Holden-Wiltse, Andrew Cameron, Edward Freedman, Christopher Seplaki, Stephen Dewhurst, Martin Zand, and John Foxe, Mary Cariola Center Read more: https://lnkd.in/gUBUwRsG #CEnR #CommunityEngagement

RADx-UP research project Oregon Saludable Juntos Podemos (OSJP) at The University of Oregon summarized community engagement activities and implementation strategies that took place across their trials to illustrate the value of the framework for public health practice and research. Their two-pronged approach integrates community engagement with intervention implementation through every phase of the developmental spectrum of public health interventions. This is bound to improve their effectiveness and reach, thereby promoting community collaboration and partnerships as well as mitigation of health disparities through sustained interventions that are responsive to diverse populations across communities. Their paper, A Translational Case Study of a Multisite COVID-19 Public Health Intervention Across Sequenced Research Trials: Embedding Implementation in a Community Engagement Phased Framework, is one of sixteen published last month in the American Journal of Public Health's (AJPH) special supplement focused on RADx-UP and its prioritization of community-engaged research. They underscore the vital role of mutual trust, explore community strengths, and advocate for reciprocal community-academic partnerships as fundamental to the RADx-UP program. Leslie Leve, Veronica Oro, PhD, Elizabeth (Liz) Budd, Anne Marie Mauricio, Camille Cioffi, Stephanie De Anda, Ellen McWhirter, Dave DeGarmo Read about it! https://lnkd.in/gUBUwRsG

Advocating for Racial Equity in the US Healthcare System explores the history of US health care, shares real-life case studies and provides additional resources for patients and providers. The guidebook opens with a brief introduction to structural racism in the US health care system and its continued effect on underserved populations. It then presents examples of unconscious biases in medical practice that disproportionately impact minority groups. These case studies summarize and explain how patient care and research have disadvantaged marginalized communities. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gvCBEpxW

Community-engaged research has proven to be a viable and essential mechanism for combating health inequities. The RADx–Underserved Populations program (RADx–UP) is the National Institutes of Health’s single largest health disparities research investment and demonstrates a significant commitment to community-engaged research. This collection of work in the American Journal of Public Health showcases the “how” and “why” of community-engaged research from conceptualization through dissemination. Drawing directly from the RADx–UP projects, the papers in this supplement prioritize several key ingredients to promote successful community-engaged research partnerships for enabling and ensuring the success of interventions tackling health disparities. NOW AVAILABLE: Prioritizing Community-Engaged Research Read the full introduction by guest editor Emily D'Agostino. Learn how RADx-UP research teams worked to establish and sustain partnerships – their successes, barriers and lessons learned. https://lnkd.in/gUBUwRsG #CEnR #CommunityEngagement #HealthEquity

The American Journal of Public Health features a special supplement focused on conducting community-engaged research in partnership with underserved populations. You can read it now! Sixteen articles by RADx-UP research teams discuss working to establish and sustain authentic partnerships with community organizations – including their successes, barriers and lessons learned. https://lnkd.in/gyPNnPTR Thank you to the guest editors: Emily D'Agostino, Debra Oto-Kent, Miriam Nuno Duke Clinical Research Institute, Health Education Council, UC Davis Public Health Sciences, UNC CHER, Community-Campus Partnerships for Health American Journal of Public Health

Share with nascent public health programs! This guide, Toolkit for Engaging Diverse Communities to Plan and Implement Public Health Programs, outlines the steps for public health programs that engage communities. It covers the process from start to finish and can really help as a program starts up. Its main goal is to share how to work well with communities. It also describes community partners’ role in improving public health. This is a guide created by Duke Clinical Research Institute, UNC CHER, and Community-Campus Partnerships for Health in collaboration with local partners for building community partnerships to carry out public health programs. Partnering with community members is vital to addressing local health issues. The toolkit uses examples from two programs that gave out COVID-19 tests. This toolkit is for anyone who wants to work with communities for a public health program. This includes community leaders, researchers, project leaders, and communicators. It focuses on tips for working with people who have not been included enough in public health efforts to date. These may include racial and ethnic minorities, people with lower incomes, and non-English speakers. Such groups have a long history of being ignored and mistreated. It is important to be aware of racial, political, cultural, and religious factors when doing public health work. https://lnkd.in/dE-CGR9y

A causal loop diagram visually represents how different elements of a system or intervention are connected, paying specific attention to how different elements interact or cause one another to change. https://lnkd.in/epg-uRAX Systems thinking helps us solve problems better by expanding the array of choices, broadening our perspective, and enabling us to express problems in innovative ways. Thanks to the RADx-UP team and working groups for their work in describing the complexity of what helps and hinders equitable COVID-19 Testing.

Systems thinking helps us solve problems better by expanding the array of choices, broadening our perspective, and enabling us to express problems in innovative ways. We used two systems thinking tools - the Iceberg Model and Causal Loop Diagramming - to describe the complexity of what helps and hinders equitable COVID-19 Testing. The Iceberg Model (pictured) depicts events, patterns, system structures, and mental models associated with two major barriers to equitable COVID-19 testing: disparities in COVID-19 test access and misinformation/missing information about COVID-19 testing. This model shows the following: -- Trends that reinforce and counteract these barriers; -- System structure flaws and problematic mental models that enable the persistence of these barriers; and -- System structure strengths and supportive mental models that can disrupt these barriers to facilitate COVID-19 testing equity. A causal loop diagram (interact with it here: https://lnkd.in/epg-uRAX) visually represents how different elements of a system or intervention are connected, paying specific attention to how different elements interact or cause one another to change. RADx-UP Working Groups

ICYMI: This guide, Toolkit for Engaging Diverse Communities to Plan and Implement Public Health Programs, outlines the steps for public health programs that engage communities. It covers the process from start to finish and can really help as a program starts up. Its main goal is to share how to work well with communities. It also describes community partners’ role in improving public health. This is a guide created by Duke Clinical Research Institute, UNC CHER, and Community-Campus Partnerships for Health in collaboration with local partners for building community partnerships to carry out public health programs. Partnering with community members is vital to addressing local health issues. The toolkit uses examples from two programs that gave out COVID-19 tests. This toolkit is for anyone who wants to work with communities for a public health program. This includes community leaders, researchers, project leaders, and communicators. It focuses on tips for working with people who have not been included enough in public health efforts to date. These may include racial and ethnic minorities, people with lower incomes, and non-English speakers. Such groups have a long history of being ignored and mistreated. It is important to be aware of racial, political, cultural, and religious factors when doing public health work. Share with nascent public health programs! https://lnkd.in/dE-CGR9y