Project Summary
Background: Urological health includes a broad range of conditions. These conditions are a major burden in the United States. The inclusion of patients and community members as partners in research in urology has been limited and may not represent their priorities.
Proposed Solution to the Problem: In this project, the team will invite patients, caregivers of patients, patient advocates and community members to be part of a urologic health Community Advisory Board (CAB). This project will take place in the Urology Institute at a health system in Cleveland, Ohio.
Objectives: The aim of the CAB will be to identify patient and community research priorities in urologic health. The focus will be on both disease topics and patient outcomes of highest priority to the board.
Activities: After the CAB members have agreed to participate, the project team will hold an orientation to current research in urologic health, patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) and comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER). Board members will be placed into subgroups of their personal interest across the range of urological health focus areas. Over the course of three meetings and through surveys completed between meetings, the CAB will develop a list of PCOR/CER research priorities in urologic health. Additionally, board members as well as clinician stakeholders who assist with facilitating the board meetings will provide feedback between meetings. This feedback will be used by the project team to improve subsequent meetings.
Projected Outcomes and Outputs:
In the short-term (during the project period), this project will have a list of research priority topics and patient-centered outcomes that will be used to inform future PCOR/CER projects focused on urologic health. The project team will also develop a tool for how to engage a CAB on a broad area of health and health care.
In the medium-term (zero to two years post project period), the team will develop a research strategic plan within two years of the project to address the top priority research topics and patient-centered outcomes identified during this project.
In the long-term (three and more years post project period), in partnership with the CAB, the team will develop and apply for funding for at least one research project addressing the priorities from this project. The team will also continue to work with the CAB while conducting that project.
Patient and Stakeholder Engagement Plan: The clinical team members will reach out to their patients and the patients’ caregivers and will ask their colleagues in the Urology Institute to reach out similarly to invite patients to participate in the CAB. The team will also reach out to community organizations to invite interested individuals to participate in the CAB. The CAB will meet three times and complete surveys between meetings. Throughout the project, CAB members and clinical stakeholders will give feedback to inform and improve the project and process.
Project Collaborators: University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University are collaborating to implement this project.