Project Summary
This group serves the Hispanic and Spanish-speaking population of New Mexico. Lung health, particularly asthma care in children and smoking cessation, has been surfacing as an issue that our community would like to address. Family advocates recently participated in a PCORI funding proposal with researchers from the University of New Mexico. While the experience was useful, the proposal-development process made us realize that we need help if we are truly going to work as partners with professional researchers and allow them to access our resources. We support families and researchers in need of training to build capacity to participate fully in developing comparative effectiveness research (CER) questions, participate in the design and evaluation of the research findings, and make sure patient efforts are valued.
The PCORI Pipeline to Proposal Awards are a natural vehicle for us as we prepare to facilitate and support patient-focused CER within our population of families dealing with childhood asthma as well as with tobacco addiction. During Tiers I and II, we engaged a network of Hispanic families with children with asthma, researchers, and stakeholders through collaborative monthly meetings; developed a shared governance vision; and communicated regularly to develop relationships based on trust and a mutual interest in improving the health of Hispanic children with asthma. We will continue to pursue these efforts during Tier III, which will culminate in the development of a list of potential funders and at least one comparative effectiveness research proposal submission.