When the clock is ticking and you’re down by seven, you want your best players on the field. Such is the case in research: in order to have meaningful, actionable feedback from the community, you must engage them early and often. Community stakeholders, also called Citizen Scientists, cannot be a research Hail Mary; there must be a time investment and commitment for the relationship to reach the red zone. For this session, the coaching staff will lead the team through reviewing plays run by UF Citizen Scientists (case studies of issues brought to the group by researchers), the yards gained by each attempt (impact of the group’s feedback), and potential penalties caused by lack of trust (the ways in which trust was necessary for success). When mutual trust is established between community stakeholders and researchers, everyone scores!

Session type: Lecture

Learning Objectives:

• Describe a best practice of community stakeholder engagement
• Explain the impact community stakeholders can have on a research study
• Apply the lessons learned from these case studies to existing interactions with community stakeholders

Speakers & Panelists

Eileen M. Handberg, PhD, ARNP-BC, FACC
Dr. Handberg is a Research Professor of Medicine and Director of the Cardiovascular Clinical Trials Program in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and Program Co-Director, OneFlorida Clinical Research Consortium. She also serves the University as an IRB member. She is an Adult Nurse Practitioner and has had an outpatient practice, and currently practices on the interventional cardiology inpatient service, and manages research patient care. She is a co-PI of the PCORI-funded ADAPTABLE trial, through which she worked closely with UF Citizen Scientists to develop a culture of communication and trust that has led to more actionable feedback on the study.
 
Christy Evans
Christy Evans is a combined Master and Bachelor of Accounting student at the University of Florida, graduating in May of 2020. Christy has been a Citizen Scientist for 4 years. Christy serves as a member the OneFlorida Clinical Research Consortium Steering and Executive Committees and works closely with a researcher to help bring community health to rural areas of North Florida. Christy has also contributed to the making of the Citizen Scientist Curriculum, as well as several presentations and publications that have come from that work.
 
Janet Brishke, MPH
Ms. Brishke is a Project Director at the UF College of Medicine who manages activities for the OneFlorida Clinical Research Consortium’s Citizen Scientist Curriculum program. While serving as manager of two Citizen Scientist programs, Ms. Brishke created a formalized curriculum to operationalize training of new members. Through collaboration between Citizen Scientists, researchers, and faculty from the UF College of Education, this curriculum offers community stakeholders an introduction to the “nuts and bolts” of clinical research. The curriculum is an open educational resource available to assist those who face challenges in operationalizing the education of community stakeholders.