Community-engaged research (CEnR) has emerged within public health and medicine as an approach to research designed to increase health equity, reduce health disparities, and improve community and population health. We sought to understand how CEnR has been conducted and to identify needs to support CEnR within an emerging academic learning health system (aLHS). We conducted individual semi-structured interviews with investigators experienced in CEnR at an emerging aLHS in the southeastern United States. Eighteen investigators (16 faculty and 2 research associates) were identified, provided consent, and completed interviews. Half of participants were women; 61% were full professors of varied academic backgrounds and departments. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, coded, and analyzed using constant comparison, an approach to grounded theory. Twenty themes emerged that were categorized into six domains: Conceptualization and Purpose, Value and Investment, Community-Academic Partnerships, Sustainability, Facilitators, and Challenges. Results also identified eight emerging needs necessary to enhance CEnR within aLHSs. The results provide insights into how CEnR approaches can be harnessed within aLHSs to build and nurture community-academic partnerships, inform research and institutional priorities, and improve community and population health. Findings can be used to guide the incorporation of CEnR within aLHSs.

Academic medical centers (AMCs) face challenges in conducting research among traditionally marginalized communities due to long-standing community mistrust. Evidence suggests that some AMC faculty and staff lack an understanding of the history of distrust and social determinants of health (SDH) affecting their communities. Wake Forest Clinical and Translational Science Institute Program in Community Engagement (PCE) aims to build bridges between communities and Wake Forest Baptist Health by equipping faculty, clinicians, administrators, and staff (FCAS) with a better understanding of SDH. The PCE collaborated with community partners to develop and implement community tours to improve cross-community AMC understanding and communication, enhance knowledge of SDH, and build awareness of community needs, priorities, and assets. Nine day-long tours have been conducted with 92 FCAS. Tours included routes through under-resourced neighborhoods and visits to community assets. Participant evaluations assessed program quality; 89% reported enhanced understanding of access-to-care barriers and how SDH affect health; 86% acknowledged the experience would improve future interactions with participants and patients; and 96% agreed they would recommend the tour to colleagues. This work supports the use of community tours as a strategy to improve cross-community AMC communication, build trust, and raise awareness of community needs, priorities, and assets.

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OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: Wake Forest Baptist Health (WFBH) is an Academic Learning Healthcare System (aLHS) serving 24 counties in North Carolina and Virginia. Like many aLHSs, WFBH experiences strained community relationships attributable to a history of medical and research abuses against marginalized populations. This legacy accompanies longstanding community mistrust in the healthcare system and research. To overcome these challenges, community-engaged research (CEnR) approaches have potential to repair community-academic relationships, improve public health, and empower groups that traditionally have been neglected by or overlooked in research. To develop and revise our understanding of how CEnR is harnessed at WFBH, semi-structured interviews were conducted with investigators and study staff experienced in CEnR approaches. In-depth interview guides were designed iteratively to capture socio-contextual and detailed descriptions of perceptions, experiences, and strategies specific to the use of CEnR. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: A keyword search performed within WFBH study records identified 51 investigators whom had submitted research proposals related to CEnR within the past ten years. Sixteen were confirmed eligible based on a review of proposal abstracts, of which 14 responded to email invitations agreeing to participate. Four additional participants were referred by initial participants. Eighteen investigators (16 faculty and 2 research associates) provided consent and completed Interviews. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: The participant sample was 50% female with a mean age of 55 years, 11% Black and 89% White, with representation across various academic backgrounds (e.g., anthropology, medicine, psychology, and public health) A majority of participants (89%) hold doctoral degrees (i.e., PhD, DrPH, EdD, MD, and MD-PhD). On average, participants had been employed at WFBH for 13.9 years, and represented various departments including dermatology, epidemiology and prevention, family medicine, neurology, social sciences and health policy, and psychiatry. Nearly all participants (89%) indicated they had never received formal education or training in CEnR, though 100% reported “on-the-job” training in CEnR. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, coded, and analyzed following an inductive thematic approach, from which twenty-two themes emerged across six domains related to CEnR (Table 2), including: Conceptualization and Purpose, Value and Investment, Community-Academic Partnerships, Sustainability, Facilitators, and Challenges. Results also provided key characteristics that define CEnR (Table 3), and yielded 11 emerging needs necessary to enhance CEnR within aLHSs (Table 4). DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: The results of this study provide information critical to understanding how CEnR frameworks and approaches can be harnessed not just in Schools of Public Health, but within aLHSs to build and repair community-academic partnerships, inform research and institutional priorities, and address community health...

Dedicated teams of diverse community collaborators and academic investigators are a fundamental component of community-engaged research. One way to build and support community-engaged research within a Learning Health System is through a community advisory committee. Such a group provides a place for community voices to be heard and facilitates discussions between diverse community members and researchers. Here, we provide guidance on developing and maintaining a community advisory committee for effective research engagement and dissemination, and provide examples of successes and challenges in developing and maintaining community and academic partnerships to foster community-engaged research. An effective community advisory committee can contribute to better, more relevant science and can support Learning Health Systems as they apply evidence to improve care within hospitals and health within communities.