The purpose of this category-I request is to develop the Arkansas Research Collaborative (ARC), designed to be the first statewide family medicine practice-based research network (PBRN) in Arkansas, and the only PBRN to reach the large rural population of the state. Arkansas consistently ranks among the worst 10 states for a number of health problems and stands to benefit tremendously from this effort. ARC is an emerging PBRN. Funding is requested to help pay for infrastructure development, research staff and consultants, and information management system development. The plan is to develop a PBRN able to carry out office-based interventions that will improve the quality of care and also be able to disseminate the findings statewide. The intent is that ARC will conduct collaborative interdisciplinary and even transdisciplinary office-based research. Funding requested in this grant will be used to develop the research capacity of ARC. The size of ARC will be limited during the two-year developmental phase but will increase over time. Initially, ARC will include seven family practice residency sites (one at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and six at Area Health Education Centers) and a large urban family practice group with 17 family practitioners and two office sites. Therefore, ARC will start with at least 60 practicing physicians and almost 150 family practice residents, serving an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse group of patients. (See appendix A for listing of members.) Over the following years, additional research sites will be drawn from family practice offices throughout the state. The central administrative home for ARC is in the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) in Little Rock, Arkansas. The DFCM is located on the UAMS academic health sciences campus and is contributing significantly to this effort.
