? IMPLEMENTATION CORE The benefits of precision medicine have yet to be fully realized, in part because effective implementation is impeded by numerous barriers. Barriers to the use of precision medicine are often magnified among racial and ethnic minority groups. In order for precision medicine discoveries to be effectively translated into practice, it will be critical to address these barriers and complexities through the science of implementation, which is the bridge between research and practice. The overall goal of the Implementation Core is to foster the adoption and dissemination of precision medicine initiatives for racial and ethnic minorities. Areas of emphasis will include genomic health literacy, using principles of community engagement to enhance adoption of precision medicine, and biomedical ethics.
The Specific Aims are: 1. To identify barriers and facilitators to implementation and adoption of precision medicine discoveries among racial and ethnic minorities. 2. To develop strategic approaches to speed the dissemination, diffusion and adoption of evidence-based strategies developed through the Center. 3. To address ethical issues related to precision medicine among racial and ethnic minorities. Given the general public's lack of familiarity with precision medicine, most of our activities will focus on working with the community to identify factors that may influence successful implementation of precision medicine and identifying, developing, and disseminating strategies to ensure practices are relevant, useful, attractive, and feasible for our target audiences. Specific work in this area will include a series of stakeholder surveys and focus groups to examine barriers and facilitators, including issues related to genomic health literacy, language, culture, trust, and concerns about privacy. From this, we will develop dissemination materials and other strategies to address barriers/facilitators, such as trust, and genomic health literacy. Other activities will target processes important in the later stages of implementation and attempt to work with the community on an ongoing basis to help them through barriers such as developing culturally informed implementation materials to enhance feasibility and fidelity of Center research projects and engaging partners that will make the program improvements sustainable over time.
