Accelerating HEalth by Advancing Diabetes Translation in Community Health Centers (AHEAD-CHC)

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY - National/Regional Resource Core The overall goal of the national core is to catalyze diabetes translation research in community health centers (CHC), the primary ambulatory system of care for safety net populations across the U.S. The proposed core, entitled Accelerating HEalth by Advancing Diabetes Translation in Community Health Centers (AHEAD-CHC), engages three of the largest and most capable CHC network organizations nationwide: AllianceChicago (Alliance), Health Choice Network (HCN), and MidWest Clinicians’ Network (MWCN). Collectively, these organizations support a total of 250 CHC sites across 29 U.S. states serving ~8 million patients. AHEAD-CHC also partners with Clinical Directors Network (CDN) for dissemination activities reaching a national audience of relevant stakeholders in all 50 U.S. states. AHEAD-CHC leverages the following existing assets and critical infrastructure to accomplish the aims of this national Core successfully. In Aim 1, Alliance and HCN will expand an existing National Diabetes Data Repository that currently includes over 3.5 million CHC patients, and make this resource available to a larger national audience of diabetes translation researchers and CHC clinicians. In Aim 2, Alliance, HCN, and MWCN offer a range of consultative services to support collaborations pairing diabetes investigators with CHCs, and help catalyze successful practice-based research by these groups. Specifically, AHEAD-CHC partners leverage existing infrastructure to offer consultations, participate in meetings, and provide analytic support to accelerate new diabetes translation research conducted in their CHC networks. In Aim 3, AHEAD-CHC offers a national dissemination arm led by CDN, which leverages its existing audience of over 50,000 researchers, CHC staff, and other stakeholders for a webinar series featuring diabetes research supported by the Core. This series has reached over 600 attendees to date. CDN archives the webinars on the AHEAD-CHC website, along with associated research products (e.g., publications, intervention protocols, and white papers), making these materials accessible on demand by an unlimited audience. With extensive collective experience conducting high-impact diabetes research in CHCs and then translating findings into improved diabetes care and outcomes, members of the AHEAD-CHC leadership team are national authorities in this area, who are uniquely positioned to succeed in the proposed work. AHEAD-CHC focuses on populations served by CHCs; offers resources and services that catalyze work across the research continuum from partnership building to translation of research products into practice and policy; enhances efficiency, productivity, and effectiveness by centralizing these assets and making them available from a single access point; and demonstrates established reach beyond the Chicago Center for Diabetes Translation Research into all 50 U.S. states and beyond.