Improving health care for the medically underserved, including our Hispanic population, afflicted by prevalent diseases, such as cancer, cardio-metabolic and infectious diseases, remains a major challenge. Limited representation of racial and ethnic minorities in clinical and translational research is an important challenge that limits the generalizability of results and contributes to the disproportionate disease burden in these groups. There is a need to increase the representation of Hispanic research participants and researchers in clinical and translational research to improve the generalizability and applicability of research findings and identify ethnic-specific differences that could dictate changes in treatment guidelines and facilitate research in this population. The Clinical Research Resources and Facilities Core of the Alliance is well positioned to address the gap in the participation of Hispanic subjects in clinical research and increase the number of Hispanic scientists participating in clinical and translational research, given their access to resident populations of both underrepresented Hispanic participants and Hispanic scientists. The goal of the Clinical Research Resources and Facilities Core (CRRF) is to facilitate and enhance safe and cost-effective clinical and translational research, with an emphasis in health problems of Hispanics and medically underserved populations. The specific objective is to provide a coordinated structure across a predominantly Hispanic IDeA jurisdiction to support collaborative multi-and interdisciplinary clinical and translational research and increase the participation and retention of Hispanic research participants. The rationale that underlies this proposal is that establishing and integrating resources across multiple Hispanic-serving Institutions and groups, staffed by culturally consonant investigators and staff, in a Hispanic US jurisdiction, will overcome many of the barriers that impact participation of Hispanics in research, which in turn will translate into more studies and more data about diseases prevalent in Hispanics. Our objective will be accomplished through three specific aims: 1) Establish an integrated network of clinical and translational research resources and facilities to enhance cost-effective, multidisciplinary and inter- disciplinary research, in health conditions prevalent among Hispanic populations; 2) Facilitate and increase the recruitment and retention of research participants from underserved Hispanic communities; 3) Ensure that clinical and translational research with human subjects is safe and of the highest quality. When these aims are completed we will impact the representation of Caribbean Hispanics as study participants and as investigators.
