The mission of the Center for Health Disparities Research (CHDR)
at Oregon Health & Science University is to use sustainable community-academic
research collaborations to stimulate research and develop new knowledge
focused on understanding and eventually eliminating disparities
in health care and outcomes for urban and rural racial and ethnic
minority and other underserved populations.
To this end, the Center will conduct collaborative multi-level
health disparities research; build collaborative research infrastructure
and capacity; promote community-based agencies and programs; disseminate
and translate research findings into actions to eliminate health
disparities. These collaborative community-academic research programs
will accurately reflect the strengths, needs and ultimately benefit
Oregon's and the Nation's racial and ethnic minority populations
and other underserved populations.
The mission to eliminate health disparities is to envision a Nation
where racial and ethnic minorities and other underserved populations
have an equal opportunity to live long, healthy and productive lives.
- Research must have relevance and benefit to the community
- Inclusion of all relevant issues - social, political, economic
and cultural -that contribute to health disparities
- Equity in all aspects of the research process - community members
have influence and leverage to ensure that the original goals,
objectives and methods of the study are adhered to
- Reciprocal exchange of knowledge, skills and capacity among
collaborators
- Mutual respect and recognition that results in productive collaborations
that last well beyond one study
- Dissemination of results using language that is understandable
and respectful
- Research programs will seek a balance between generating knowledge
related to the determinants of health disparities and interventions
that benefit the community
- Develop community-academic collaborative health disparities
research infrastructure and capacity at OHSU and collaborating
institutions and community agencies.
- Conduct collaborative community-academic research that targets
the multiple factors that contribute to health disparities.
- Disseminate and translate research findings into culturally
competent strategies and actions to eliminate health disparities.
The goal and objectives will be
achieved through the work of the two Center Cores, Administrative
Core and Partnership Core, in collaboration with our institutional
partners, community partners, urban and rural minority populations
and other underserved populations.
The administrative core consists of the Co-Directors, Corliss McKeever,
MSW and Nancy Glass, PhD, MPH, RN and a 20 member statewide Advisory
Board. The Administrative Core focuses on managing the overall activities
of the Center as well as assisting in the development and coordination
of efforts between the Center and partnering institutions and communities.
It assumes responsibility for the organization of the Center and
the administration and management of funding and fund raising. The
Advisory Board is made up of community and academic leaders
that believe deeply in the capacity of diverse people and
organizations to work together to identify, understand and eliminate
health disparities. The Advisory Board members represent our collaboration
with the African American Health Coalition, Inc., Susannah Maria
Gurule (SMG) Latino Health Foundation, Native American Rehabilitation
Association (NARA), Northwest, Providence Healthcare System-Milwaukie
Hospital, Multnomah County Health Department, Oregon Department
of Health and Human Services and Portland State University, School
of Community Health.
The Center's Partnership Core focuses on engaging statewide urban
and rural racial and ethnic minority populations and other underserved
populations in sustainable collaborative health disparities research
with OHSU and partner institutions and agencies. The partnership
core will assist in developing essential components of a successful
community-academic collaboration including: 1) promote broad and
active community participation; 2) determine community readiness
to collaborate; 3) facilitate the development of a meaningful collaborative
process; and 4) assure participants have sufficient influence in
research collaboration development, scope and priority health and
social issues.
The Center for Health Disparities Research will further support
its mission through multidisciplinary collaborations throughout
OHSU and other institutions including; the Center for Diversity
and Multicultural Affairs, the Center on Self-Determination, the
School of Nursing Center for Professional Development and Diversity,
the Center for Healthy Aging, The Center for Symptom Management
in Life-Threatening Diseases, the Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing
Excellence and the Center for Strengthening Family Care in Oregon.
he Co-Directors and Steering Committee members meet monthly to
plan and implement the following activities for 2003-2004:
- Conduct a thorough assessment of current statewide research
projects at OHSU, PSU, the State and local health departments
and community agencies that focus on health disparities. The assessment
will be based on definitions and screening criteria established
by the Steering Committee to:
- identify statewide research, evaluation programs and collaboration
models with racial and ethnic minority populations and other
underserved aggregates and/or communities.
- identify the scientific and community expertise within these
research projects;
- identify the research designs, methods, skills, tools and
strategies used
- identify the community-based collaborations (i.e. community
agencies, aggregates, advisory committee members) that have
been established in order to conduct these research projects;
and identify the characteristics of established study cohorts.
- Establish monthly community-academic collaborative health disparities
research seminars. Co-Directors and steering committee members
will establish a schedule of invited community and academic health
disparities experts. The seminar will be open to OHSU students
and faculty and the larger statewide community and located within
the community. These research seminars will highlight strengths
within communities, ongoing innovative research collaborations
addressing health disparities and focus on strategies for developing
collaborative research projects. The research seminars will be
advertised throughout OHSU and with our collaborators (e.g. PSU,
African American Health Coalition, SMG Foundation, Multnomah County
and State Health Division).
- Collaboration with the Center for Professional Development and
OHSU Center for Diversity and Multicultural Affairs. The Center
will work in collaboration with these two groups in meeting the
goals of recruiting and retaining ethnic and cultural minority
faculty and students and building capacity of community members
and investigators in collaborative research.The Center will establish
adjunct and joint faculty appointments for community leaders and
experts who engage in collaborative research programs with OHSU
investigators and advise the Center.
A major component of the Center is development sustainable collaborations
with racial and ethnic minority and underserved communities, the
partnership core will focus on the recruitment and retention of
research expertise from within minority and underserved communities,
including community members, clinicians and researchers working
in rural and urban minority and underserved communities. The following
activities will be planned and implemented in 2003-2004.
|
|
