The Center for Community Health Education Research & Service (CCHERS) at Northeastern University is launching an innovative research initiative called “A Model of Frontline Care Provider-Led Patient-Centered CER”, funded by the Patient Centered Outcomes Reasearch Insititute /Engagement Award contract #EACB- 38806. The project aims to empower home health aides (HHAs) to take leadership roles in comparative effectiveness research (CER) that impacts their elderly and disabled patients.
Led by Dr. Donna M. Bright and Dr. Benita Bamgbade, the two-year project will train 15 HHAs in research fundamentals while incorporating principles of racial equity and social justice. These HHAs will collaborate with five academic researchers to develop a research agenda focused on patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR).
A key innovation of this project is its recognition of HHAs’ unique insights gained from their direct patient interactions and cultural knowledge. The project will establish a Home Health Aide Research Collaborative (HHA-RC), creating a sustainable structure for frontline healthcare workers to drive research initiatives.
The project’s expected outcomes include building research capacity among HHAs, improving cultural literacy among academic researchers, and developing tools for community-led research. Long-term goals include transforming the community health workforce to include frontline practitioner-researchers and ensuring cultural literacy becomes a prerequisite for designing CER studies in marginalized communities.
Partners in this initiative include the Institute for Health Equity Research, Evaluation and Policy of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, Ocha Transformations, and the Institute for Health Equity & Social Justice Research at Northeastern University’s Bouvé College of Health Sciences.
The project will launch at CCHERS annual meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, March 18, 2025 from 5 – 7 p.m. at Northeastern’s Renaissance Park, 1135 Tremont Street, Room 909. To RSVP, please email [email protected].
