Community Engagement and Research
SYNERGY Community Engagement and Research (CEAR) is committed to engaging regional communities in collaborative clinical and translational efforts to improve health and health care.
Efforts are founded on our extensive experience with the Dartmouth CO-OP Project, a network of community- based clinicians who have developed and refined the model of practice-based research.
Across New Hampshire and Vermont, many organizations work to promote community health in the region, but there is no effective framework to bring them together for efficient collaboration. CEAR, working with other components of SYNERGY, is creating this framework.
CEAR provides regional organizations and communities with access to health status data, research tools, and support. The SYNERGY Community Partnership Board gives regional communities a strong voice in shaping health research and implementing results.
Community Engagement and Research Leadership
The Community Engagement and Research Leadership Group (CEAR) meets monthly to review progress and coordinate next steps and their integration with SYNERGY objectives.
Components Representing Community
The community organizations identified as partners in Community Engagement and Research bring deep understanding of health challenges in our local communities and share an interest in identifying problems that can be addressed through community-based participatory research.
Dartmouth Components
The Dartmouth components identified as partners in Community Engagement and Research have broadly demonstrated strengths in research focused on community health and community-based research.
Information for Clinical Trial Participants
A clinical trial is a study in which people can participate in order to prove or disprove a scientific idea. It often involves studying the effectiveness of a treatment, medication, or investigational drug.
Links in this Section:
Feedback, Concerns, and Ideas
Do you have concerns regarding the health of your community or the health care services provided in your community?
Do you have ideas for community based healthcare research and/or health care delivery that you would like to see explored?
Want to learn more about community-based participatory research?
Need help finding an MD or PhD collaborator for community-based research?
Please share your thoughts and feedback by emailing Deborah.J.Johnson@dartmouth.edu
SYNERGY Community Partnership Board
The SYNERGY Community Partnership Board supports bidirectional education between research scientists and community groups and community physicians. The Board promotes empowerment, capacity building, planning, and cooperation toward collaborative, sustainable, and mutually beneficial research projects, achieved through discussion among academicians and community groups.
The Board meets quarterly. Initial planning meetings were held in Lebanon, NH, and in Concord, NH, in December 2010. In March, the Board will announce a pilot project mechanism to foster community-based participatory research.
The Board also meets twice annually with the SYNERGY Executive Committee to discuss health-related issues in regional communities, improvement of community-academic partnerships, and evaluation of SYNERGY in addressing community health concerns.
Community-Based Participatory Research
Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is research that is conducted as an equal partnership between traditionally trained "experts" and members of a community. In CBPR, researchers partner with individuals, health professionals, organizations, policy makers, or entire communities—groups that have a shared interest or goal—and the community participates fully in all aspects of the research process. Successful CBPR requires equitable partnerships based on sharing power, resources, credit, results, and knowledge.
PRIMER (Partnership-driven Resources to IMprove and Enhance Research) is a web-based resource toolkit, available through the national Clinical and Translational Science Award Program. PRIMER specifically addresses the needs of people engaged in collaborative research and offers research support in six important categories:
- Building Collaborations
- Developing Proposals
- Starting a Study
- Conducting and Managing Projects
- Disseminating and Closing Research; and
- Resources for Training
For more information about SYNERGY community connections, please contact Deborah Johnson, Community Research Leadership Office.