Lauren Fitzharris: Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us on the April Ctsa. Program webinar
Lauren Fitzharris: for our agenda today we will have ncats updates by Dr. Carrilla, Ccos updates, and then followed by 2 great presentations. We're going to hear from Miriam Bradella on the integrating Cts into the visiting scholars program, and also we will hear from Dr. Sergio Aguilar Gaxiola on making community engagement meaningful.
Lauren Fitzharris: So we will go ahead and get started with our 1st presentation, and I will turn it over to Dr. Carrilla.
Michael Kurilla: Thank you, Lauren, so I'll just try to move as quickly through through this as possible to get to the real meat of the webinar. So on the next slide, I just wanted to
Michael Kurilla: remind people that we have a full year budget. It's a full year. Cr, so our budget for 2025, which will end September 30, th is the same as what we saw in 2024, and overall the ncats. With regard to the entire ncats budget. The Ctsa is just a Tad over 2 thirds of the total amount
Michael Kurilla: next slide, please.
Michael Kurilla: I just wanted to highlight. We've gotten as our new director at Nih has taken over. We've gotten. I just wanted to highlight his top priorities here just to think about future activities that you may be contemplating focus on diseases and conditions that affect people in particular. Chronic and rare diseases have been highlighted.
Michael Kurilla: Jay is very much focused on reproducibility in science and medicine, and that can certainly do with a little bit more attention. And then finally, really driving innovation. I think you know, Jay has always been one that has tried to identify the real. What he refers to as edge science, and I think it aligns nicely with ncats overall next slide, please.
Michael Kurilla: So just wanted to. This is a little bit of a busy slide, and and Joni showed this during her Council presentation. But I just wanted to. This is really a shout out to the Ctsa program. And if you look under what we're doing here is we're looking at the K scholars that have been trained by the Ctsa and comparing them over the same time period, and this is from 2,006 through
Michael Kurilla: 2,000 to 2024, the entire lifetime of the Ctsa. That we have available data for. And we're comparing Ctsa case scholars
Michael Kurilla: to the rest of Nih K 12 institutionally trained scholars. And I'll just there's a lot of data here, but I'm just going to point out a few. So if you look in subsequent Nih r. 0, 1 awards the Nih trained K scholars go on to get an r. 0 1 award at 15.5%,
Michael Kurilla: whereas I don't know if my point I don't think my pointer works here so unfortunately, but the Ctsa Ctsa scholars are at 27.2%, which is more than a 50% close to a 75% increase over the rest of Nih, and we see the same sort of thing in the Nih r. 0 1 e, which is the r. 0 1 equivalent. So it's a little broader than just ro
Michael Kurilla: ones, and if you move outside of Nih, go to other agencies. You see that the Ctsa K scholars are nearly 3 times as successful as compared to Nih. K. 12 scholars. So the Ctsa training has really been very, quite productive, and is delivering on what its original intentions
Michael Kurilla: for the design of the program were and continue to be next slide.
Michael Kurilla: So, review of our applications going forward, we did have a delay for a number of reasons, but we've almost finished the current round of reviews that normally would take place in the February March timeframe the one s the batch of ones that should have gone back in back in February. They were completed earlier this week.
Michael Kurilla: and the last Nofo that will be be reviewed is tomorrow. Actually, the Rc. 2. So all of that is scheduled
Michael Kurilla: for things that would go to October 2025 Council, that is, reviews that would be handled through late spring and the summer. This is what is being transferred to Csr. It will be conducted by the Nih Center for scientific review. Csr.
Michael Kurilla: And the link is there about the centralization of Peer Review. We don't have any indication yet on how Csr will cluster applications. We have. The applications have been transferred to Csr. But system notifications. If you're used to receiving updates on the status
Michael Kurilla: have been on pause for a bit until Csr gets a little organized into how they want to handle this. As soon as we know we will, we will make you aware of what's happening for the submitted applications next slide.
Michael Kurilla: So people have asked about this quite a bit. So there is a tracking accountability in government grants systems called tags. The link is there, and this is in accordance with the recent Presidential memo on radical transparency about wasteful spending. So this is where you can look to see what grants have been terminated. Many of the grants. Most of them have been done on departmental authority, which means it's beyond and not nih decisions.
Michael Kurilla: There have been a number of Nih terminated grants to date, and in particular, Columbia has a large batch because of other relevant issues.
Michael Kurilla: In spite of that. And with the Ctsa terminations. We did see that we had one Ctsa reinstated.
Michael Kurilla: and and we had another award that the supplement was initially terminated, but was reinstated, and I'll just highlight. The the reinstatement was not anything related to the grant. It was related to a lawsuit that was unique to the particular state where that supplement is located. So
Michael Kurilla: the other thing going on at the moment is
Michael Kurilla: We just wanted to let you know that any termination terminated Ctsas, or what we're also seeing is the possibility of frozen institutions having their funding frozen as opposed to terminated.
Michael Kurilla: We have elected to have personnel remain on enterprise committees, work groups, steering committees. If they have the support for those personnel, irrespective of the direct support from the Ctsa. Grant. Because we don't know the status going forward for any of these actions. Next slide, please
Michael Kurilla: the January Council. We had? We had January and April this year. April 17, th just last week. Why was it so late. Well, we were under a communications pause which included a pause in the Federal Register. Advisory Councils are
Michael Kurilla: part of considered Federal advisory committees, and as such, fall under the Federal Advisory Committee Act or Faca. You may hear that used quite a bit, and there are requirements for public notification. So if you're going to have a council meeting, it must be
Michael Kurilla: made announced to the public with sufficient amount of time, usually several weeks, and that official notification is done through the Federal Register, which I'm sure all of you are reading religiously on a regular basis. The May Council will probably be pushed back to June, but it will. We're in the process of identifying an appropriate date for that, but it'll slip a little bit
Michael Kurilla: from its normal time in usually in late may next slide, please.
Michael Kurilla: So all of our Ctsa Nofos have been edited to align with the new agency priorities, and so they're back up and live. We can say that they do not significantly alter. These edits did not significantly alter the overarching goals or purpose of the Nofos. If you have any questions about this, please reach out to your Po or use the Nofo mailbox for general questions.
Michael Kurilla: Recently, several weeks ago, we shared some examples of alternative language with the Ctsa administrators. I would advise anyone interested in what is alternative acceptable language
Michael Kurilla: to include, to go to your administrators and look at that slide deck that was presented because there were lots of examples of how to what sort of language is considered more appropriate. Next slide, please.
Michael Kurilla: For the for the Rpprs. Please follow the Rppr instructions. I know I shouldn't have to say this, but
Michael Kurilla: apparently I always do.
Michael Kurilla: the there have been some changes in some of the instructions updated very recently, just a month ago.
Michael Kurilla: particularly removing the note about reporting on current areas of strong public interest, removal of specific diversity supplement instructions and removal of trainee diversity report language. If there are no major or significant changes, then state that specifically, I would highly advise you. Please do not cut and paste from last year
Michael Kurilla: only include a budget justification for items and amount that recommend represent a significant change from what was previously recommended.
Michael Kurilla: Also changes in title. The aims and abstracts should not be requested or completed with the Rppr submission. There we need to conduct this through an official prior approval. Request that comes from your Aor. There is a template that must be followed. You can find that
Michael Kurilla: it's publicly available. And please recipients before you. Before you attempt this work with your grants management specialist and your program officer to discuss changes that you are interested in making next slide, please
Michael Kurilla: just a quick note about fraud, waste and abuse. You hear that quite extensively. There is a link that describes this, a little more detail. This is serious, and we are seeing increasing scrutiny is happening. So this is why I say, don't just cut and paste for your rppr.
Michael Kurilla: Be accurate in your application and reporting. Do what you say you're going to do or report a change and rebudget. We are expecting more audits and reviews with additional scrutiny for what goes on. So I just, I admonish you to please pay attention to this next slide, please.
Michael Kurilla: just to highlight, and I'm not going to go through this in any detail. But this is something for you to reflect on later. So the misrepresentation in a Grant application, or the Rppr. What I like to call a ripper is considered fraud, and there's a number of examples here of what would be considered possible misrepresentations. The consequences are.
Michael Kurilla: can be severe from debarment, from receiving future fundings all the way up to potential criminal prosecution. So please take this seriously and and don't. Don't just simply cut and paste
Michael Kurilla: next slide, please.
Michael Kurilla: I wanted to highlight one recent addition to our website, the Ctsa Program commercialization efforts. We piloted this with this activity was piloted with the Ctsa Program administrators to collect information that could be shared and archived for future use.
Michael Kurilla: We started this last fall 17 Ctsas provided around 30 responses or stories of commercialization activities, successes
Michael Kurilla: and Ccos is now developing a collaborative database for sharing information among the ctsas
Michael Kurilla: about these activities. There's the link that you can. You can see this in in more detail
Michael Kurilla: next slide, please.
Michael Kurilla: I just wanted to highlight a few things, the care for health. This was our prior director's initiative, focused on primary care. There are now 6. There were 6 Hub awards that have been made. 4 of them were made to institutions with Ctsas, which was a requirement, either be a ctsa, a Ctr. Or Pcornet, and 4 of the 6 were there because of Ctsas.
Michael Kurilla: What they are doing, moving forward just to make you aware is they are looking for. They're soliciting clinical, critical clinical questions which they call Ccs.
Michael Kurilla: And preliminary clinical study concepts that might
Michael Kurilla: form the basis for future research studies through the care for health network. This is not looking for a detailed protocol. This is looking for a real short preced that will sort of identify a clinical question and the
Michael Kurilla: the concept around what kind of study would be involved in sort of addressing this issue. The thing to highlight is that the care for health submissions for this to the care for health is limited to the existing hubs or individual Ics from across. Nih can put these in.
Michael Kurilla: So if you're not part of the care for health network. As it is, you could identify one of the care for health networks to have them submit for you, or in collaboration with you for this. But this is something that is
Michael Kurilla: on ongoing, and the the submissions are due by the end of the month. Next slide, please.
Michael Kurilla: and upcoming dates to remember the next program Webinar will be May 28, th so it will be it will be in the summer
Michael Kurilla: next slide.
Michael Kurilla: That's it for me. Thank you. Back to you, Lauren.
Lauren Fitzharris: Hey? Thank you for those important updates, Dr. Carilla, we'll move on to Ccass updates. And I'll share briefly a few updates.
Lauren Fitzharris: So for Cycle 14. We received 4 working group proposals during this cycle, and the steering committee is currently reviewing them, and they will vote in June, and the approved working groups will have a start date. As for July first, st
Lauren Fitzharris: we also wanted to highlight a Webinar series organized by the engaging individuals with disabilities in the research Process working group. There are 3 webinars in the series, and the 1st one will be May 9.th The registration link will be put in the chat. And you can find more details in this slide set.
Lauren Fitzharris: And
Lauren Fitzharris: we wanted to also highlight a few 2 recent releases on the Ccos website. 1st is a new Ctsa. Membership Directory
Lauren Fitzharris: to search throughout the Ctsa members by name or affiliation. We also wanted to note a new Ccos search function, so you can now enter a keyword to search the Ccos website, and the links to those are in the chat.
Lauren Fitzharris: And this slide summarizes a few general reminders, including registration for the Ccost website how to request an account and also how to how to join the communications email list. So you'll get different announcements, such as a reminder about this webinar.
Lauren Fitzharris: And that is actually it for the Ccos website for the Ccos updates. And
Lauren Fitzharris: I'm going to stop sharing my screen right now, and invite Miriam Bradella to share her screen and
Lauren Fitzharris: lead her presentation.
Miriam Bredella: Great. Thank you so much, Lauren. I think you should be able to see my screen. Big Thumb quick thumbs up or not.
Lauren Fitzharris: Thank you.
Miriam Bredella: So it's a great pleasure presenting to you again. I presented in the past on the Ctsa Visiting Scholar program, and we will talk about the second work group. So the Ctsa Virtual Visiting Scholar Program was established in 2020 in response to the Covid-nineteen pandemic, and it provides an opportunity for our Kl. 2 scholars to serve as virtual visiting professor at a participating hub.
Miriam Bredella: They give a presentation, which is the Ctsa visiting scholar lecture, and there is also an opportunity to network and to receive outside mentorship, and the goal was really to improve the exchange of ideas on collaborations between hubs beyond the visits. We also made sure that these lectures and seminars are available to the entire Ctsa community to increase the national visibility of our scholars, and we also hope that this fosters collaborations across hubs.
Miriam Bredella: So then, in 2022, with ncats focused on clinical translational science or Cts, we established a new working group, which is a little bit of a mouthful. It's the integrating Cts into the Ctsa Virtual Visiting Scholar Program working group. And that was really it was the old mechanism. So we have these K 2 scholars who are virtual visiting professors.
Miriam Bredella: but we also instructed them to talk about Cts. So the instructions were to give a 40 min presentation and spend 20 min to discuss clinical translational science and highlighting areas where their work reflected cts, but also to discuss roadblocks to Cts that they have experienced.
Miriam Bredella: So we had our 1st cycle of scholars in 2023. With this new working group we had 25 scholars from 17 hubs. And we did an immediate post visit survey of our scholars. And the response rate was excellent. 92%. You can see the demographics here, and 91% agreed or strongly agreed, that giving a formal presentation or talk was valuable to them.
Miriam Bredella: The conversation they had with others at the Host institution was valuable for advancing their research and their professional development.
Miriam Bredella: and scholars met at least one person they are likely to contact again in the future, which was one of our goals, and they would recommend the virtual scholar program to other Kl, 2 or K. 12 scholars.
Miriam Bredella: and then we did a 6 month follow-up visit. The response rate was dropped a little bit. But what was really interesting, that 56% of the scholars had actually a real follow-up conversation with an individual that they had met during the visits at the visiting Hub, and their perceived benefits of participating in the program were networking collaboration, recognition, and improvement on their research and presentation skills. And also Cv building.
Miriam Bredella: And because we were focusing on Cts, we actually did a survey before the start of the program how familiar they were with the concept of Cts versus Ctr. And you can see in white are the pre-program questions or responses.
Miriam Bredella: And so there were very few, like about 10% were very familiar. But then, after the program, it was over 40%, 45%, and you can see the results on the bottom, and before the mean score, or the average score was 3.6, and afterwards it was 4.3. So our scholars actually became more familiar with the concept of Cts.
Miriam Bredella: Then we did a second cycle. We tried to get them all in in one year. In the second cycle, 28 scholars from 19 hubs participated. The scholars. Immediate scholars survey. You see it here. The demographics, 100% agreed or strongly agreed, that they're giving a formal presentation was valuable, and they would recommend the program to others, and 95% agreed or strongly agreed, that the conversations they had
Miriam Bredella: at the host institution advanced their research and their professional development, and 78% agreed that scholars had met at least one person. They are likely to contact again in the future. We do not have the 6 month survey results at this point. We're collecting them. But here is the self-reported familiarity of the scholars with the concept of Cts. Versus Ctr. Very similar.
Miriam Bredella: although there was no one who was very familiar in it before, but the average score was 3.5 and increased to 4.2 after the program.
Miriam Bredella: Here are some comments from the scholars. For me personally this is always the most important part, so we had some open, ended questions where we got responses, what the scholars what they found most useful, and they mentioned that networking opportunities, mentoring career advice, giving a formal talk and presenting their work to non-experts in their field.
Miriam Bredella: Areas of improvement included more structure for the visits, increasing participation in and attendance of Scholar Grant grounds, and that was very variable across different hubs and more help for scholars to contact with collaborators at the host up and setting up the visit. So more operational things.
Miriam Bredella: Here is a comment. I really appreciated the opportunity to virtually visit another Ctsa and share my K research. Finding it was a wonderful experience to meet with other researchers. Learn about how Ctsa work in other universities and learn about additional opportunities.
Miriam Bredella: Another scholar said for me the most useful aspect of the visit where the opportunity to present my preliminary Kl, 2 results, and to showcase my findings from a translational perspective. I also had the chance to meet someone in my field whom I hadn't previously had the opportunity to meet, as well as to connect with other junior faculty from the visiting institution, the last one here the whole experience was very useful to me. Number one.
Miriam Bredella: The formal talk allowed me to present my science to folks interested in the topic number 2, the one-on-one meetings meeting facilitated scientific discussions and helped to build connections so that I could expand my network number 3 for a junior investigator. This is a great. This is great for professional growth and developing communication skills.
Miriam Bredella: So this is from the scholars. But we also asked the hubs what they thought about the program response rate was excellent, and most strongly agreed that the program was valuable to their institutions and to their scholars, and the faculty meeting with the scholars had a positive experience. 79% and 93% would recommend the visiting scholar program to other institutions.
Miriam Bredella: In our second cycle the response rate wasn't as good. But again there was a little bit worse. The program was valuable, only 64%. But to their institution, but for their scholars they thought 73%, and the faculty meeting with a visiting scholar had a positive experience, and they would recommend it to other Ctsas
Miriam Bredella: and
Miriam Bredella: in open-ended questions. The hubs really mentioned opportunities to learn about different programs and ways to incorporate translational science into research. What they found most helpful areas of improvement, similarly coordinating the visits. More initiative of the scholars, and setting up the visits and having scholars provide more than one department they would like to meet with.
Miriam Bredella: Here are a couple of comments from the hubs. It was great to be able to share the work of other Kl. 2 s. At our institution. We've seen a lot of interdisciplinary research topics. So we are able to involve multiple research groups to attend the presentation and meet with visiting Kl. 2 S. Faculty investigators who agree to meet have good things to say about the quality of the visiting scholars as well as the interest in their research. Topics.
Miriam Bredella: Another person said, always been a good experience. The visiting scholars are
Miriam Bredella: wonderful to work with. Let's keep working on how the translational science skills are reflected in scholar work for those programs that have converted to the K. 12.
Miriam Bredella: And someone said, great program. This should be a regular part of the Kl. 2 K. 12 program.
Miriam Bredella: So that brings me to my final slide and the next steps. So what we're doing right now is collecting the results from the 6 month. Follow up survey. We've written a manuscript after the 1st working group. So now we're going to write a second manuscript about the translational science aspect. But I think the most important question. The elephant in the room is, how do we make this program? A permanent part of the Kl. 2 K. 12 program, because this was the last year of the working group. We've now doing this for 4 years.
Miriam Bredella: but we maybe can be able to find a way to make this a part of the program.
Miriam Bredella: So this work would have not been possible without the support of this amazing team, and would like to highlight my co-directors, Susan Pusick and Stephen Nash and Joel Sevat.
Miriam Bredella: and but especially the people who really helped making this work was Suzanne Schmidt from Ud health, San Antonio and Cindy Mark from Secos, but also Kathleen Ray, Jessica Meyer, and Patrick round from ncats, and with this I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you so much for your attention.
Lauren Fitzharris: Thanks, Miriam, and there are some questions for you that have come into the Q. And a box starting at the top from Emma. I think we have time to answer at least one or 2. But
Lauren Fitzharris: and I asked, Did you, what did you measure specifically about the value of new focus on Cts. In other words, beyond awareness of the 2 terms.
Miriam Bredella: And so we asked them for well, for actually not so much for the measurement. It was more a part of the program that they talked about their roadblocks. But for the survey it was the familiarity of Cts.
Miriam Bredella: And I have. I would like to have Steven and Joel here.
Miriam Bredella: Hello! So.
Lauren Fitzharris: Great.
Miriam Bredella: See?
Miriam Bredella: Yeah, it's great to have crime.
Lauren Fitzharris: The next one. How did you evaluate the change in knowledge in Cts. Versus Ctr. After the scholar visit? Could you share the instrument.
Miriam Bredella: Oh, it was just like how familiar they felt! It was self-reported. We didn't ask them to, didn't ask them to do a quiz or anything. They just reported their own familiarity with the topic.
Lauren Fitzharris: Think?
Lauren Fitzharris: We have time for one more, cap? Stevens asked. Thank you for reporting this evaluation of the program in education terms. Is there an educational framework or theory that could be used to frame evaluation in a way to contribute to the science of education.
Steve Asch: I can. I can help with that, Miriam, if you like.
Miriam Bredella: Thank you.
Steve Asch: So there is a work group that is developing translational science competencies for the Ctsa. I'm a part of it, and I think we could probably leverage that in the future, if we wanted to.
Lauren Fitzharris: Okay, alright. So we are about at time to move to our next presentation. However,
Lauren Fitzharris: Miriam, Steve, Joel, if you can open up the Q&A. Box, and you can type responses to these. But thank you everyone for the questions, and thank you, Miriam, and your team for this great presentation.
Steve Asch: Or
Steve Asch: I wonder, I wonder if I could just echo Miriam's plea that this would be great to incorporate into the future of the Ctsa. We've loved doing it, but we're at the end of our work group.
Lauren Fitzharris: Understood.
Joel Tsevat: I just wanted to echo her her appreciation of everything that's the coordinating centers have done for us
Joel Tsevat: over the years. It really wouldn't have been possible to do this without them.
Steve Asch: So true. Thank you, Lauren.
Lauren Fitzharris: Yeah, well, thank you all again. Thank you for this great report out of Miriam and to highlight all of your group's great work.
Lauren Fitzharris: And now I'm going to invite Sergio to share his screen, and he's there.
Lauren Fitzharris: Oh, there you are, Sergio, the floor is yours. We're ready.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: Thank you, Lauren, I appreciate it. Can you hear me.
Lauren Fitzharris: Yes.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: Great, great. Well, 1st of all, thank you so much for the kind invitation to present
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: a topic that is really very close to my heart and has been for decades, actually, which is making community engagement meaningful.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: And I just want to recognize that
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: I borrowed this title because I like it a lot from a presentation that Lloyd Mitchner and Debbie Orokent and I presented to the Aamc. A few days ago. So I just want to recognize that
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: a.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: I also want to recognize for many of us who are in this meeting in this webinar.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: to to go back to 2,009 or so
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: in which the Ctsas had different goals, strategic goals, and the strategic goal
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: for and there was a committee for that that I was a part of, and Lloyd was a part of as well which was enhancing the health of our communities and in the nation. Joseph At, who is here, was also a part at 1 point a part of this effort as well.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: and there were 2 sub goals that I want to bring to your attention 16 years ago.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: One is to link and facilitate collaboration among community-based research networks to implement research best practices. And this was related primarily to community engagement.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: And then the second sub goal to develop capacity and methods for the translation of research results into practice across the healthcare system.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: And I'm bringing this up because, boy, I think that then and and now there is an alignment about the the kind of things that we we have been tackling, you know, ever since.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: 1 1 thing that I want to emphasize is that the bottom line then
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: and now is that the bottom line is enhancing the health and mental health of our communities
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: through reducing health disparities and improving health care and a critical ingredient in this collective goal is meaningful community engagement.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: And you have noticed that I added, meaningful to the field of community engagement. And I think that this slide, which I like it coming from the Urban Institute captures.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: Why, why, to do meaningful community engagement, and they get it right. You know, when we do authentic and sustainable community engagement, it's a fundamental element to advancing health equity. I would add mental health, equity as well, and eradicating barriers to community well-being.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: So what? What is? What is the meaning of meaningful and meaningful was included in another landmark contribution that I'll share with you in a few minutes, but also in the principles of community engagement.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: 3rd edition that was just released, you know, in January, which I'll dive into in more detail as well. But I want to emphasize that it is critically important to know that meaningful community engagement requires working closely
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: with communities
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: to understand their preferences on how, when, and to what level and degree, they want to be engaged in efforts.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: But one thing that is of critical importance here is to listen. It is to build trust, and also for us as academic partners, is to become trustworthy as well.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: So there are 2 landmark contributions that are happening right now that I would like to share with you one once again, is the principles of community engagement. The 3rd edition
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: and the other one is the National Academy of Medicine, assessing meaningful community engagement in health and healthcare. And there there is a synergy in these 2 contributions. They feed into one another.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: And so let me get more in depth. In these 2 contributions
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: the principles of community engagement. The 3rd edition was released in the middle of January.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: and you know it was actually posted in the Cdc. At Sdr. Website.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: where the 2 previous editions, the one published in 1997, and the second edition in 2011 had been housed for for that long.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: And unfortunately, the website is down. And what you have here is the website of the Aamc. The Association of American Medical Colleges, which had been very kind of posting for those who want to download the book.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: We also have it in our website. I'm posting that out. And and it is also available in several other websites. So I think for those of you who would like to look at this 3rd edition. You can find it in different, in different websites nowadays
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: like this one. You know the I'm a member of the National Advisory Council of Ncats, and as Mike Dr. Corilla mentioned, we had a meeting this past Thursday, and Dr. Johnny Rutter presented this slide, and I was delighted that she did, and she summarized some of the some of the things, the highlights that are included in the principles of community engagement.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: And, as you can see. Also there is a website also, where this book can be can be downloaded as well.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: But in addition to the book there is also an executive summary 2 pages of an executive summary that that I will share with you some details, and this comes from the executive summary.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: and
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: it recognizes that the 3rd edition was a major effort, led by my colleague, Liz Kahn, and someone from the Cdc. Atcr Atsdr
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: and the new edition. You know that has some some items that are new compared to the second edition, including going from 9 principles to 10 principles. So there is a new principle that I will share with you in more detail in the next few minutes, and also there are 3 new chapters.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: But there are 2 things that I want to highlight in chapter one, that my friend and colleague, Linda Cochler, and many colleagues, were leading the effort in on this chapter.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: and and there is a new definition of community engagement that I like a lot. I think that it is upgrade, an upgrade from the previous definitions. And also it features the community engagement, meaningful community engagement conceptual model coming from from the National Academy of Medicine contribution.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: So let me share with you briefly the new definition.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: and it reads, community engagement is an ongoing, evolving process of multi-directional communication with and for people to solve the problems and address the concerns that matter. To them this emphasis is important.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: The process should be durable, long, lasting, and equitable to all who participate.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: The ultimate goal is to learn implement and disseminate the practices.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: equitable partnering influence policies, programs, and practices for the betterment of the community. Every time that I read it, boy, I reiterate what I just said, that I really like this definition.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: The other thing that I want to emphasize once again is that on Chapter 2, which is describes the principles of community engagement.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: that there is this 10th principle that we included, and I led the charge on that. But with the help of the
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: the chapter, the the chapter chapter authors that you can see on the slide, but also I consulted with the Philippe Alberti, Dr. Alberti, from the Aamc. Center for
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: Health Justice and and the Aamc. Have been working for over 3 years on the 10 principles of trustworthiness, and he contributed significantly to what was included as the 10 Principle as well. A little bit more information coming up on that.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: There are 3 new chapters also, as you can see there, one on community engagement measures and assessment of practices with potential for success, that our friend Nina Wallerstein and other co-authors
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: contributed in a chapter on community engagement to promote health equity through implementation science. I'm glad that that chapter was included, and there is a 10th chapter on sustaining the engagement. That is an important chapter, as well
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: as you can see.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: In the 1997 1st edition there were only 9, as there were in the 2011. The second edition that the Ctsas played a key role in that edition that was co-chaired by Lloyd Michner by Dj. Mccloskey and myself.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: And so in this, in this 3rd edition, we added, this principle
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: is on trustworthiness as a fundamental element to sustainable community engagement, and also for advancing health equity. That is, the North Star, actually of this principle as well. A little bit more information about the about principle. 10,
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: recognizing that trustworthiness is essential
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: to forming effective partnerships, and over time deepen the commitment through all of these key elements that you see here, building relationships based on empathy, honesty, respect, and humility, and treating the communities with dignity as well.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: also partnerships built around the liberty means of engagement, and multi-directional directional communication. This is of critical importance, and one that I cannot emphasize. Enough that we have learned in my case. The hard way throughout the years is the.
Lauren Fitzharris: I think we lost Sergio.
Michael Kurilla: Think he's coming back.
Lauren Fitzharris: Yeah, one moment.
Lauren Fitzharris: Sergio.
Lauren Fitzharris: Hmm.
Lauren Fitzharris: well, I'm sorry everyone. Let me see if I can ping him real quick.
Lauren Fitzharris: Looks like Sergio might be trying to get back online.
Lauren Fitzharris: Thanks everyone for your patience.
Lauren Fitzharris: Just one moment.
Lauren Fitzharris: There he is.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: Let me see.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: Can you hear me, Lauren?
Lauren Fitzharris: Yes.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: Oh, great! I'm sorry. I I zoom kicked me out and I'm back. So let me share my screen again. Okay.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: okay.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: okay. Coming up.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: Can you see?
Lauren Fitzharris: Yes.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: Okay.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: so I'm going to continue. And now I'm on the second landmark contribution of several resources that the National Academy of Medicine has been released. This is the main website, and I would encourage you when you get the slides to look at those resources
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: we have been working. Actually, I'm the co-chair of this effort, and we started working along with many, many other colleagues that are some of our. Some of them are in this webinar, and and there has been
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: at least 5 resources that have been released. A conception model 7 impact stories, 28 assessment instruments that measure meaningful community engagement, a website that is evolving and a user's guide as well. And we are working on the special publication that we're hoping to have ready this year.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: You know, we are working actively on on that special report.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: But what I want to bring to your attention, and this was included in Chapter one of the principles of community engagement. The 3rd edition, and and also in the 2 page executive summary, is this model. We reviewed over 20 leading meaningful community engagement or community engagement models, and we came up out of 34
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: committee members of what we call the Organizing Committee that we came up with, and I won't have time to focus on each of the elements. I would strongly recommend that you take a look at them. But what I want to bring to your attention
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: is the centrality of community engagement, and how community engagement is is guided by the core principles that you see in the slide.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: and what I want to bring to your attention. Is this 2 dots about how community engagement is linked, and vice versa to the north Star. Of all of this, which is to advance health equity through transform systems for health.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: And this conceptual model provides a roadmap also, as we have heard from users for those who really want to engage more systematically on advancing health and mental health equity.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: There are 7 impact stories, as I mentioned to you, there are these 7 that you can see, and there are 2 of those that there are videos about, including the Walkability project. This is our colleague and friend, Debbie Oro Kent
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: that did a fantastic job. You know, a community leader who has a lot of lived experience on community engagement. I strongly recommend that you check it out. I was delighted with when Dr. Johnny Rotter, also in a previous National Advisory Council of Ncats, that she presented this, she highlighted this as well.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: One of the things that we did in the National Academy of Medicine. Effort is to do to do a very comprehensive lead review.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: and we reviewed nearly 1,500 articles, and we came down based on criteria and based on on further reviews to 28 instruments that are represented in what was included. And and you can find
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: those 28 instruments in this website. It is, I think, that it is excellent. You know, I remember as part of the Ctsa effort, the community Engagement Key Function Committee and and subsequent committees that we were talking about common metrics for community engagement.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: I think that what has been collected and compiled in this effort pretty much approximates the ideas that we were planning to implement several years ago. So check it out. I think that is important. These are important contributions.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: One thing that I want to mention is that something that I think is very, very helpful is that each instrument and its questions are mapped to the conceptual model, as you can see here, this comes from the engage for Equity community engagement survey that Nina Wallerstein and many other people contributed with.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: and also each instrument is presented with a summary information.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: The
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: is, for example, I have 2 columns of the kind of things that are included as part of the engage for equity, community engagement survey like outcomes, several outcomes, also the language and translations and psychometric properties, like the ones that you can see there, like construct validity, content, validity, and other types of validity and reliability as well.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: So I I'm coming to the last 2 last 2 slides.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: and I want to recognize that my friend Lloyd Mitchner contributed with this particular slide of an article that is about to be published this coming week at the American Journal of Public health in which he and
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: Debbie Orokent and Asha Williams, who is representing the National Academy of Medicine that we put together. So there are some key lessons like, attend community meetings and events, listen for needs, priorities, and particularly listen to strengths and assets of the communities that we are working with.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: learn what is already underway and what is being planned, strengthen programs over building new
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: help, use data to inform discussions, including interpretation by those with lived experiences.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: build community and institutional capacity for trusted, sustained engagement. Sustainability is of critical importance in all of this, and support the community's ability to lead and be there for them.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: And finally, this is of critical importance. As well be sincere, flexible, and humble, and progress will move at the speed of trust, as you have. I'm sure that you have heard that before. So the last slide
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: I have been asked on many occasions throughout the years, if I can share in simple terms what I have learned working with communities. And I summarize that in 4 s's, as I call them, one is that we need to be sincere with the communities that we work with. We need to be simple. We need to be straightforward, and we need to chat up
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: and listen.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: And with that thank you once again for your attention. I'm going to stop sharing, and Lauren going back to you, hoping that there's going to be a few minutes for questions.
Lauren Fitzharris: Yes, thank you, Sergio and I did want to mention that there will be a few more ncats updates towards the end of this webinar, so I'd like to save just a couple of minutes for that. But
Lauren Fitzharris: in the Q. And A. Box there are a few comments Lloyd did give you kind of a shout out for your longstanding leadership on this topic, and also Martha Arietta expressed appreciation for this new 10th principle that it's no longer asking the community to exercise trust, but shifting
Lauren Fitzharris: that responsibility also to the organization. So those are 2 comments that have have come in.
Lauren Fitzharris: We do have a question from Kath. I'm excited to see advancement in community engagement. Where do you see the special community of clinicians fitting into the model as the bridge between best practices and health outcomes through healthcare delivery systems.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: Well, that's a wonderful question. Actually, this is something that we are working on as we speak.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: because our group is putting together a very large Pcori proposal, and we are working. We have been working throughout the Pandemia with fairly qualified health centers and with clinicians.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: and the critical importance, for in in this exchange with the providers about, you know, listening to the communities and incorporate what they listen into the practices that they have.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: So we are actually working, as I speak on articulating, how does how that looks like?
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: But there is a critical importance for us who work on community engagement
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: to work with primary care, for example, and I know that many of you have been working on this for many, many years. Jack Westfall comes to mind. And, Lloyd, you have been working on this for for decades, and many others that I'm sure that are in attendance. But this is a key link, and there is a lot of work to do in this area.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola: and I hope that we can continue to work very closely with with clinicians, and in the context of primary care and other settings, as well.
Lauren Fitzharris: Great. Thank you, Sergio, for those comments. A few more questions have come in. We're almost about at time, and I did want to give Dr. Carrilla a few final minutes to report on these updates. But if you would like to take a look at these questions that have come in, and Dr.
Lauren Fitzharris: Aguilar Gaxiola. His email is in the chat if anyone would like to reach out to him. But I'm going to share my screen again and bring up 2 more slides that were not included in the 1st
Lauren Fitzharris: update or.
Michael Kurilla: Apologies. Yeah, these were inadvertently not included in my presentation. Just wanted to make you aware of notice of civil rights, term, and condition of award, these will be new. This is this is new language that will be part of the terms and conditions for all nih grants, cooperative agreements and other transaction
Michael Kurilla: authority awards. And you can see what the language in there entails. It's it's basically functional civil rights type of language. The next slide is is one new thing that has been coming in. If we can have the next. Yeah, thank you. It's referred to as defend the spend.
Michael Kurilla: So when Nih makes a grant award, or gives you your annual increment. Nih itself does not directly give money to the institution. We give it to something referred to as Pms. Or
Michael Kurilla: sure why, it's but there we go that is at Hhs called the payment management system, or Pms, and it is from that system that you then pull down funding what has been implemented recently through because of an executive order is is
Michael Kurilla: some cost efficiency. It's a new mandatory field that has been added at the sub-account level just last month. And it's limited to a thousand characters. But basically, you're gonna have to provide a justification for every time there's a there's a pull down of funds.
Michael Kurilla: and the justification can be brief or more detailed. It could be something as simple. You see some examples there. Purchase of antiretroviral drugs for HIV Aids, clinics in Uganda, reimbursement of payroll and supplies expenses for head start preschool programs. So this is something new again. This is not something Nih initiated. This is coming from Hhs and beyond. So just to make you aware of those things and sorry for the oversight. But I'm running over a few
Michael Kurilla: a minute or so, but just wanted to make people aware. And again, we'll include these in the final slide deck that we share.
Michael Kurilla: Thank you.
Lauren Fitzharris: Thank you, Dr. Carella, and thank you to all of our presenters for these great presentations. Thank you to everyone who stayed on, and these slides will be posted along with the recording on the Ccos website. So thank you. Everyone. I hope that you have a great rest of your day. The last. The next webinar is May 28, th and we will see you. Then
Lauren Fitzharris: take care.