Building Trust between Minorities and Researchers The representation of minorities in public health and biomedical research still lags behind that of whites. This represents an ongoing challenge to the validity and generalizability of research findings, which consequently contributes to disparities in health status and care, both of which constitute an injustice to unrepresented minority groups. There are multiple factors that influence the participation of minorities, including that lack of access to research, lack of knowledge and distrust, and barriers such as attitudes of researchers and health professionals. This proposal unites a strong team of public health researchers, bioethicists, multiple Clinical and Translational Science Institutes, and the organization, Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research, to propose the first effort that seeks simultaneously to impact minority communities, investigators and IRB members. Utilizing qualitative and quantitative methods, we will examine the attitudes, knowledge and behaviors of researchers and identify best practices in community engagement;determine the level of knowledge about research, informed consent and willingness to participate in research among a national random sample of minorities only;develop, pilot test and revise a curriculum, """"""""Building Trust"""""""" for minority communities;and finally, develop and implement multiple trainings aimed at enhancing the capacity of researchers and IRB members to support recruitment and engagement with minority communities. Our over- arching goal is to create a sustainable infrastructure of training and educational initiatives, which can be evaluated over time to determine their impact on improving minority participation in research. The goal of our """"""""Building Trust"""""""" Bioethics Research Infrastructure Initiative is to develop, implement and evaluate strategies aimed at increasing minority participation in biomedical and public health research, including clinical trials. Our campaign will produce effective, sustainable tools that can be implemented and evaluated to determine the extent to which they contribute to the increase in minority participation in NIH sponsored research and increase the self-efficacy of investigators dedicated to this goal.
The goal of our Building Trust Bioethics Research Infrastructure Initiative is to develop, implement and evaluate strategies aimed at increasing minority participation in biomedical and public health research, including clinical trials. Our campaign will produce effective, sustainable tools that can be implemented and evaluated to determine the extent to which they contribute to the increase in minority participation in NIH sponsored research and increase the self-efficacy of investigators dedicated to this goal.
