Substantial progress has been made in developing effective diabetes prevention and care programs; however, significant gaps remain. A major gap is suboptimal uptake, adoption, and sustained use of evidence-based prevention and care programs, especially among minorities and underserved populations. To close this gap, there is a clear, cogent, and compelling public health priority to conduct methodologically rigorous and innovative diabetes translation research. Effective translation research can efficiently identify ways to improve uptake, adoption, utilization, and maintained engagement with evidence-based prevention and care programs. Core C (Engagement and Behavior Change) is well-positioned to catalyze this sort of diabetes translation research by leveraging its multidisciplinary expertise, its extensive experience in community- and clinic-based research, its access to ethnic minority physician practice networks, and its access to ethnic minority communities and clinical populations. The Core has extensive breadth and depth of experience and expertise in community-based participatory research (CBPR) with minority disadvantaged communities and clinical populations. Though these are often underrepresented populations in translation research, Core C brings experience in facilitating their ethical recruitment, retention, and sustained engagement in health promotion and research activities. Core Faculty also have extensive experience and expertise in the application of user- friendly mobile- and computer-based technologies to accelerate adoption and maintenance of health behaviors. The Core is also proficient in designing user-friendly technology for enhancing the quality, efficiency and cost-effective collection of participants' self-reported data. Core C will also partner with other Center Cores and Programs to implement a coordinated, innovative ?multidisciplinary team approach? to mentor early career investigators. To support researchers, the Core will develop specific products and services, such as User Guides (user-friendly and free PDFs and expert videos) to enhance understanding of the importance of CBPR principles and practices and to promote use of CBPR; assist in design and application of new technology to optimize translation research; and provide guidance on the applicability of technology to enhance the quality and efficiency of data collection. Core C will also provide direct consultation for investigators, in-person or via web-assisted video-based technology (this latter strategy is efficient and cost-effective in providing consultation to geographically disparate investigators). Core C will track utilization and impact of services via Google analytics for website-accessed products (type, number, and frequency of tools accessed and/or downloaded) and by requesting all Core users complete web-administered client satisfaction scales. This data will be used to monitor and improve the quality and usefulness of Core products and services. Core C's services may be instrumental in catalyzing research, particularly for minority populations, that will advance the field of diabetes translation research.
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