Network for Community-Engaged Primary Care Research (NCPCR) Fact Sheet

NCPCR is part of the CEAL ecosystem and leverages community engaged research in primary care settings to identify and implement interventions and service delivery strategies to address health inequities. The trusted voices of health care providers are enabled as they engage patients within their communities to actively address health knowledge gaps, build trust in biomedical research and science, and address social determinants of health and chronic disease. NCPCR’s mission is to establish a primary care research network within NIH CEAL aligned with CEAL’s mission and goals to build sustainable partnerships addressing health inequities and improving diversity and inclusion in research.

NCPCR Objectives

Objective 1

Support research on awareness, education, and health information needs relating to biomedical research.

Objective 2

Promote inclusion of disproportionately affected racial and ethnic minority populations in biomedical research, including clinical studies and trials.

What does NCPCR offer?

• Rigorous scientific evidence-based intervention research in primary care settings to address social determinants of health and chronic disease.
• Innovative strategies that improve health care delivery in the primary care setting, including gaps in prevention and treatment with an overall goal of reducing disparities in access to care, quality of care, and disparate health outcomes in CEAL communities.
• Health equity, improved health outcomes, and stronger community partnerships through community-engaged research in primary care settings.
• Community engagement through partnerships with community health centers (CHCs) and community-based organizations.
• Integrated systems to enable the participation and inclusion of populations that experience health disparities in clinical research and trials.
• Data from electronic health records to promote data interoperability for public health.
• A novel infrastructure for practice-based research across a national network of Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and CHCs.

NCPCR Accomplishments

• Advisor Engagement: NCPCR developed tools for effective advisor engagement and evaluation. NCPCR established an advisory board with community representatives and other stakeholders to gather input from community and clinician panels, CHCs, patients, and CHC-serving organizations on program strategies, including a patient recruitment and referral network for clinical trials. NCPCR also identified best practices to strengthen advisor partnerships, incorporating ideas into projects, and determining the best evaluation tools for capturing engagement activities.
• Infrastructure Projects: NCPCR created a dissemination network with national reach. This network of primary care research organizations, academic health centers, community-based organizations, and CEAL Alliance Network members disseminates evidence-based materials, messaging, and resources developed by our national and regional partners, including CEAL regional teams, and leverages the primary care setting to disseminate messages and materials to patients and care providers. NCPCR is also developing a patient recruitment and referral network and a dissemination network with national reach.
• Randomized Clinical Trials (RCT) Projects: NCPCR designed an innovative, practical, community-engaged, participatory process for developing RCT interventions and protocols from formative research data. NCPCR also identified and engaged CHCs that represent CEAL communities for participation in RCT interventions.
• Learning Series Webinars: Created to engage with researchers, medical students, staff at FQHCs, community members, community-based organizations, and Primary Care Association partners, the webinars focused on practice-based research and have addressed the importance of diversity and inclusion in clinical trials, and the types of data that can be collected to evaluate care model implementation in primary care settings.

NCPCR Awardees

Morehouse School Of Medicine

Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) is among the nation’s leading educators of primary care physicians and is recognized for its social mission. MSM coordinates the Southeast Regional Clinicians Network which includes more than 230 FQHCs, more than 1700 clinical sites, and eight state primary care associations serving over 4 million patients.

OCHIN

OCHIN is a nonprofit healthcare innovation center providing knowledge solutions promoting quality affordable healthcare for all. OCHIN has built one of the largest and most successful health information networks in the U.S., serving more than 1000 health care delivery sites, with over 22,000 providers in 45 states.