Research on OTR

L. Lauren Brown and Amna Osman Awarded $2.1 Million by PCORI for a Study on Advancing the Science of Engagement: Trauma-informed Research Co-production to End the HIV Epidemic

We are pleased to announce a research team at Meharry Medical College and Nashville CARES has been approved for $2.1 million in funding by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to study methods for enhancing research quality in nationally prioritized jurisdictions in the Southern United States (U.S.). The project has been designed by and will be led by the Nashville-based academic-community dyad and co-Primary Investigators, Dr. Lauren Brown (Meharry) and Amna Osman (CARES) and an international team of Co-Investigators, Drs. Robert McLean (Ottawa Hospital Research Institute), Emma Sterrett-Hong (University or Louisville), Emma Kay (University of Alabama, Birmingham), and Ian Graham (Ottawa Hospital Research Institute). The overarching goal of this study is to advance the science of engagement among persons with HIV or individuals likely to be diagnosed with HIV. The project was crafted in response to calls from governing bodies, such as the Health Resources and Service Administration and the United Nations Member States, for the development and roll out of community-led solutions to advance goals to end the HIV epidemic in the country. This project will concentrate on developing inclusive and psychologically safe strategies for producing community-led research to end the epidemic in the Southern U.S., where more than half of all people with HIV in the country reside and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder rates are 20 times higher among persons with HIV, compared with the public.

Project goals will be accomplished through activities associated with three aims: 1) Define contextual factors enabling or constraining Trauma-resilient Research Co-Production (TRCP); 2) Pilot the TRCP model and refine it; and 3) Estimate the impact of using the TRCP approach across HIV Care Organizations (HCO) in eight priority jurisdictions, including regions located in Nashville, TN; Louisville, KY; Atlanta, GA; Birmingham, AL; Charleston, SC; St. Louis, MO; and Miami and Orlando, FL. Research in each of these regions will be co-produced by an academic-community dyad, following the community-based participatory approach Co-PI’s Brown and Osman studied during their time in the Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Academy at University of Michigan under the leadership of Drs. Barbara Israel and Chris Coombe. Through these aims, the team will co-produce the novel TRCP framework, an instrument to measure its fidelity, an interactive toolkit to guide future end-users on its application, and a book presenting lessons learned in each of the eight regions.

Brown and Osman’s study was selected through a PCORI Funding Announcement focused on building an evidence base to support development of measures and approaches that strengthen meaningful engagement in comparative clinical effectiveness research. Much has been learned in recent years about participatory research that seeks to involve the ultimate end users of study results, including patients, caregivers, clinicians and others, as partners in the research process. But there has been little systematic study about which engagement techniques are most effective.  

“This study was selected for PCORI funding for its potential to strengthen patient-centered and stakeholder-driven comparative clinical effectiveness research by providing evidence about specific engagement methods and measures that promote representative engagement of patients and other stakeholders in research,” said PCORI Executive Director Nakela L. Cook, M.D., MPH. “We look forward to following the study’s progress and working with Dr. Brown and Mrs. Osman to share the results.”   

Brown and Osman’s award has been approved pending completion of a business and programmatic review by PCORI staff and issuance of a formal award contract. 

PCORI is an independent, nonprofit organization authorized by Congress in 2010. Its mission is to fund research that will provide patients, their caregivers and clinicians with the evidence-based information needed to make better-informed health care decisions.

OTR in the PICU

A team of researchers from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, and Meharry Medical College are leading the effort to adapt the constructs of Organizational Trauma Resilience to pediatric intensive care unit settings across the United States. Efforts are underway now to validate an instrument for the PICU environment. Stay tuned for results.