270 Four Pillars of Community Health and Research Engagement: The UT Southwestern CTSA Program’s Innovative Approach to Putting the Community Health Science Model into Practice

Abstract

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Goals: Engage in collaborative approaches that target health disparities, especially among communities experiencing poverty or ethnic/racial minorities. Develop and sustain effective community-academic partnerships that foster trust through bidirectional communication and shared leadership leading to improved translational research. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: The Community Health Science model was developed at UTSW over the past 20 years in efforts to integrate practices across 3 component areas – clinical practice, population health, and community organizations – into a single collaborative effort to improve health and reduce disparities. As part of the CTSA Program’s translational science efforts, we have extended this model to promote community engagement in research as an additional strategy needed to achieve health equity. Our Office of Community Health & Research Engagement operates 9 programs that each fit within one or more of 4 overarching conceptual pillars - Education/Resources, Collaboration/Partnership, Outreach/Service, Priorities/Perspectives - serving to bridge the community-academic divide and build strong, trusting relationships. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: The implementation of our model has resulted in measurable outcomes. To date, we have hosted 23 HealthStreet community events resulting in 464 health screenings, 203 health needs assessments completed, and 123 individuals joining our Community Research Registry allowing for future contact to participate in research. Our Community Health Coalition, comprised of 32 organizations, provides a forum for co-learning between researchers and stakeholders. We have awarded 9 grants ($175,800) for community-engaged projects. Our Community Advisory Panel has participated in 8 sessions with research teams. A total of 13 projects utilized the Spanish Language Resource, for a total of 30,617 translated words. Finally, we have hosted 9 Community Engagement Grand Rounds lectures, which included a total of 559 attendees. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Our model strengthens our capacity to build trust with communities and facilitate sustained community-academic partnerships. By prioritizing community engagement in research, we improve health equity by understanding community perspectives and increasing diversity in trials. We hope our model can be disseminated and scaled for greater impact.