Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH) have received a funding award of over $1.1 million from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) for a two-year study that will address the need for researchers to critically evaluate their capacity for reciprocal partnerships with patients and communities.
The project, titled “Developing and Validating a Measure of Researcher Readiness for Patient and Community Partnership,” aims to develop and validate a measure called the Researcher Readiness for Patient and Community Partnership Assessment Tool (RRPAT).
The RRPAT will be a psychometrically sound, patient-informed, user-friendly tool that assesses whether researchers possess the appropriate knowledge, skills, behaviors and attitudes to be prepared and able to conduct patient and community partnership in health and health care research.
Project Co-Director Mary Goldberg, PhD, associate professor, Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology, and Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) Evaluation Core director says, “This evaluation exercise allows researchers to assess their competencies and identify areas for growth. We hope this foundation will lead to the development of capacity building interventions that support partnership building skills.”
“While researchers are experts in their respective fields and generally well-intentioned,” she continues, “many are unaware of or lack the specific skills needed to serve as reciprocal partners. Our assessment tool will help to address this gap, helping researchers become better partners and ensuring future partnerships are built on trust.”
The key to the research lies in the assessment tool being an important first step to strengthening researchers’ partnership skills, which is linked to higher-quality partnerships that ensure research is representative, patient-centered, rigorous, and beneficial to patients and providers.
Goldberg explains, “Improving how research is conducted and communicated, starting at the grassroots level, is important to fostering trust in the research process as well as the results that the research generates. It’s not enough for studies to be patient-centered; they also need to be community-driven through meaningful partnerships.”
“This study was selected for PCORI funding for its potential to strengthen patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research by providing evidence about specific methods and measures that promote engagement of patients and other stakeholders in research,” says PCORI Executive Director Nakela L. Cook. “We look forward to following the study’s progress.”
Team and Partners
The RRPAT was originally developed by Project Co-Director Kunga Denzongpa, PhD, from CCPH in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Alyce Palko, evaluation project manager at Pitt CTSI, to use as a part of the Community Engagement Alliance Consultative Resource (CEACR), a collaborative NIH-funded center that coaches research teams on community engagement. Denzongpa describes, “RRPAT now requires validation, and with PCORI’s support, this study will confirm its usability and credibility, facilitating broader adoption across the research community.”
In addition to Goldberg, the RRPAT research team includes Co-Director Kunga Denzongpa, PhD, MPH, and Co-Investigators Mylynda Massart, MD, PhD, associate professor in School of Medicine Department of Family Medicine and co-director of CTSI Community Engagement Core, and Lauren Terhorst, PhD, professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy and associate director of statistics education for the SHRS Data Center.
The team is supported by colleagues at Pitt and CCPH who focus on community engagement and evaluation, including Alyce Palko, MPH, evaluation project manager at Pitt CTSI; Fuzexia Guo, PhD, evaluation project coordinator in the Pitt Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology; Al Richmond, MSW, CCPH executive director; Paige Castro-Reyes, CCPH deputy director; Yubelly Perez, MSOL, CCPH operations manager; and Emily Finley, MPH, CCPH engagement lead.
It’s Possible at Pitt
“Pitt’s deep-rooted community engagement activities and development of community engagement centers prime us to complete project activities here and be intentional about further developing meaningful relationships with our community partners,” says Goldberg.
Pitt CTSI is a nationally-recognized leader in community engagement and the Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology is a longstanding partner of many communities and organizations representing people with disabilities.
“In other words,” says Goldberg, “community partnership is absolutely in our DNA.”
“We’re excited to learn from our CCPH colleagues who are experts in this area and have established the ‘Principles of Good Practice,’ a widely used framework for authentic partnerships,” says Goldberg. “This set of principles helps guide institutions and communities on how to share power, resources, and decision-making equitably.”
“In terms of what this means as a whole to Pitt, when we practice what we preach, we become a better community partner ourselves. We hope to lead by example and help Pitt grow as a national leader and exemplar in community partnerships, engagement and patient-centered research.”
