A new $20 million research initiative will engage the people most affected by health disparities in developing solutions that can help improve their overall health and well-being. The American Heart Association, celebrating 100 years of life-saving service as the world’s leading nonprofit organization focused on heart and brain health for all, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), a leading national philanthropy dedicated to takes bold leaps to transform health, funding four research grants to foster collaboration between research scientists and community leaders to develop community-driven research programs aimed at improving health and saving lives.
The American Heart Association’s Health Equity Research Network (HERN) on Community-Based Research Approaches will bring together teams of scientists from Furman University, Yale University, and the University of California-San Diego to collaborate on research projects with community-based organizations in California, New York and South Carolina. A team from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio will serve as the community engagement resource center for the network, leveraging expertise for site and national training, providing advice and guidance, compiling data reports and coordinating the management of the initiative.
“This new innovative research network aligns with the American Heart Association’s multifaceted approach to advancing cardiovascular health for all, including identifying and removing barriers to health care access and quality, increasing equity, diversity and of inclusion in science and the strengthening of diverse research.” said Keith Churchwell, MD, FAHA, 2024-25 volunteer president of the Association and chair of the volunteer writing committee for the organization’s 2020 landmark presidential advisory on health disparities. “These networks are designed to identify ways to aggressively address adverse social determinants of health, while engaging the very people most affected to improve their individual and community health.”
This initiative exemplifies our shared commitment to advancing health equity by harnessing the power of community-driven research. Working alongside the communities most affected by health disparities, we support innovative changes in conventional clinical research that better address health equity. We believe this collaborative effort will improve health outcomes, build a foundation of trust in the research process, and contribute to the knowledge necessary to achieve a future where health is no longer a privilege, but a right. “
Alonzo L. Plow, Ph.D., MPH, RWJF Vice President, Research-Evaluation-Learning and Chief Science Officer
Community Engagement to Build Research Capacity, Trust and Ownership (CONNECTOR) is the name of the community engagement resource center run by a team from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. This group will be led by Vasan Ramachandran, MD, FAHA, professor and founding dean of the University of Texas School of Public Health, San Antonio, and Frank Harrison, MD, Ph.D. distinguished chair in public health. Key activities will include supporting network teams to identify, evaluate and manage community-based solutions to combat heart disease that match what people believe they need and are willing to support to deliver local changes for better health. This will include training the next generation of students in how they can work in communities and learn from and with the people in those communities to effect change. In addition, the team will share key insights from the research projects.
The three targeted research projects, which started on 1 July and will run for five years, include:
- Advancing Food Justice through Community-Driven Corporate Research – University of California San Diego and YMCA of San Diego County: This group will be led by Cheryl AM Anderson, Ph.D., MPH, MS, FAHA, professor and dean of the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at UC San Diego, and Earl M. Felisme, Tri-Chair for the Community Council of San Diego Childhood Obesity Initiative; The theme of their work is “overturned paradigms”. This group will redefine and reorient the ways in which resources, information and wisdom flow between communities, academia and other institutions. They will advance food justice—the belief that everyone should have access to healthy and sustainable food—in San Diego County, California through three key programs: a community-led grant program that funds community priorities; an academic-led scientific methods program to support community grants; and a postdoctoral training program. The struggle of not eating enough nutritious, high-quality foods, combined with concerns related to finances, the environment, housing, education, safety, and discrimination can lead to poor health outcomes. The team’s vision is that everyone, everywhere will eat healthy diets and achieve cardiovascular health through community-led, diverse and inclusive research and collective action.
- JUSTResearch, FamJUSTICE and InJUSTICE – Yale University SEICHE Center for Health and Justice and JustLeadershipUSA: This panel will be led by Emily Wang, MD, MAS, professor of medicine and public health at Yale University and director of the SEICHE Center for Health and Justice, and DeAnna Hoskins, MA, president and CEO of JustLeadershipUSA, a national organization based in New York. This team will investigate why people who are incarcerated, along with their family members, are likely to have an increased risk of poor health, particularly poor heart health. They will work with formerly incarcerated individuals to design research projects to identify barriers to health and wellness. The team will collect data to determine which health risk factors may be more prevalent among incarcerated people and their family members, and which types of interventions may be more successful in improving their health. The team plans to develop protocols and practices for a toolkit that can be used by community-academic partnerships to engage people affected by mass incarceration in future research.
- Strengthening community power in research to identify systems change towards health equity – Furman University and LiveWell Greenville: This group will be led by Melissa Fair, Ph.D., director of community action for the Institute for Community Health Promotion at Furman University, and Sally Wills, MPH, executive director of LiveWell Greenville (South Carolina). The team will study the perception of community strength among people from under-represented communities, as well as how local government actors see the community’s contribution to their work. The group will form a community advisory board to create a model for educating people to become more involved in their community. They will study the effectiveness of community-based research programs in which people with lived experience have a stronger voice, and specifically how this can improve chronic disease and health inequalities. In addition, the team will conduct an analysis of research studies that have included community participation in the decision-making process. The team will also explore how local policies have affected chronic disease in counties in South Carolina and the Deep South.
The Health Equity Research Network on Community-Driven Research Approaches is the fourth Union-funded health equity research network. The Health Equity Research Network on Improving Access to Care and Other Health Disparities in Rural America launched in July 2023 to better understand the unique health challenges associated with individual risk factors, social determinants of health, and lack of access to health care. care for people living in rural US The Health Equity Research Network on Disparities in Maternal-Infant Health Outcomes launched in July 2022 to focus on advancing understanding of factors underlying the disproportionate impact of pregnancy complications and deaths among women of color. The Health Equity Research Network on Hypertension Prevention launched in July 2021 with research projects focused on hypertension prevention in underserved populations.
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