The Mississippi Building Research Infrastructure Capacity (MSBRIC) Project will develop a multi-disciplinary health services research program that will be related to several of AHRQ's goals including the assessment of the quality of care for vulnerable populations, assessment of the special health care needs for low income populations, and improvement of the delivery of primary care services in rural areas. Specifically we will form a partnership of health service and child service providers in the Mississippi Delta, one of the poorest rural areas in the nation, with social science researchers, and with the leading organization of pediatricians (the American Academy of Pediatrics via the Center for Child Health Research [CCHR]). The purpose of the partnership is to plan and ultimately conduct health services research designed to improve health care and health outcomes for underserved, predominantly low-income and minority Delta children. The current application would support planning activities including the development of specific health service research projects tailored to the specific context of the Delta and focusing primarily on children in the Delta. The planning activity includes three elements: (1) adapting an existing research infrastructure at Mississippi State University's Social Science Research Center (SSRC) to develop a specific focus on health services research for rural, impoverished predominantly minority children in the Delta; (2) developing the aforementioned partnership between Delta service providers, the SSRC and the CCHR; and (3) extending to health services research for Delta children, innovative research strategies that have been developed in other settings. During the first project year, detailed research plans will be produced based on datasets, programs, and methodologies that have been developed by the various partners. During year 2, a preliminary/pilot study based on at least one of those plans will be completed.
