Building an academic-community partnered network for clinical services research: the Community Health Improvement Collaborative (CHIC).
OBJECTIVE
Community-based participatory research is recommended for research on health disparities and to improve uptake of clinical research findings. We describe the development of a multicenter consortium designed to support a community agency-academic partner infrastructure to support community-based, health-services research on multiple sources of health and healthcare disparities in local communities.


METHODS
We describe the development of the Los Angeles Community Health Improvement Collaborative (CHIC).


RESULTS
The CHIC partners examined the research capacity and health priorities of its partners and developed a research agenda focused on four tracer conditions (depression, violence, diabetes, and obesity) and four areas for development of research capacity: public participation in all phases of research; understanding community and organizational context for clinical services interventions; practical clinical services trial methods; and advancing health information technology for clinical services research. The partners pooled resources to develop these areas for the tracer conditions.


CONCLUSIONS
The challenges of a participatory approach to community-based clinical services research go beyond the significant methodologic and operational issues for specific projects and include building a sustainable capacity for research, community programs, and partnership across diverse communities and stakeholder organizations even when funding sources are not fully aligned with these goals.
Wells
Kenneth B
KB
RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, California, USA. kwells@ucla.edu
Staunton
Anne
A
Norris
Keith C
KC
Bluthenthal
Ricky
R
Chung
Bowen
B
Gelberg
Lillian
L
Jones
Loretta
L
Kataoka
Sheryl
S
Koegel
Paul
P
Miranda
Jeanne
J
Mangione
Carol M
CM
Patel
Kavita
K
Rodriguez
Michael
M
Shapiro
Martin
M
Wong
Marleen
M