THE ACCESS RESEARCH HUB: COMMUNITY-BASED RESEARCH FACILITY TO PROMOTE TRANSLATI -
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Access Community Health Network (ACCESS), a 501(c)3 federally qualified health center (FQHC) organization, proposes to secure funds under the NIH Recovery Act Limited Competition: Extramural Research Facilities Improvement Program (RFA-RR-09-008) to construct a new community based facility dedicated to the translation of research activity and findings to community venues. This research space-the "ACCESS Research Hub"--will represent the first of its kind to be developed by an FQHC network to localize the collaboration between academic researchers in a patient and community-centered arena, independent of any single academic institution. This proposal responds directly to the call by the NIH to the nation's biomedical researchers through its Clinical Translation Science Awards (CTSA) program to develop community relationships that will foster translation of science to community practice with resulting community impact. The proposed project will consist of new construction of a 16,000 to 17,000 square foot facility, at a cost of $8.3 million. This research hub will be built adjacent to a new ACCESS "health center of the future" FQHC facility in the Illinois Medical District on Chicago's west side, to be constructed with entirely separate funding in the same time frame as the research facility. The proposed research facility will offer dedicated space committed to the purpose of bringing academic researchers, community practitioners and patients together to design, plan, and support the implementation of biomedical research in line with CTSA objectives. Approximately 370 workers will gain some employment income from the construction project; facility operation will result in the creation of 22 new permanent positions at entry level through managerial staff levels. Significance: As the nation's largest FQHC organization, ACCESS serves 215,000 patients in the greater Chicago area, and maintains research collaborations with two CTSA funded institutions (University of Chicago and Northwestern University), participating in several NIH-funded studies. By the end of FY11, all 52 ACCESS health centers will be connected by a single electronic health record system, with interoperable capacity to communicate with the eight to ten major hospital systems providing a continuum of care for ACCESS patients. The success of community-engaged research will ultimately depend upon developing and utilizing research infrastructure to facilitate the participation of community residents in clinical trials. Our proposed approach will be to create hub and spoke venues for community engagement, with the proposed new research hub facility in the Illinois Medical District serving as the anchor site where external academic researchers will engage with our organization. In addition, ACCESS will develop "spoke" facilities, that is, dedicated space in two or more outlying suburban ACCESS facilities where patients will be able to participate in clinical trials and other studies in an accessible community health setting in their own neighborhood without having to travel out of their own community or to navigate through an academic institution.
