Evaluating the implementation of a community-based research program benefitting older people: The Cornell Institute for Translational Research on Aging

The aim of this paper is to present data from an ongoing evaluation of the Cornell Institute for Translational Research on Aging (CITRA). CITRA, an Edward R. Roybal Center, is a community-researcher collaboration in the service of older New York City residents, connecting researchers at Cornell University-Ithaca with researchers in the Weill Medical College Division of Geriatrics and the Westchester Psychiatric Division. CITRA includes a “research ready” network of 265 agencies that deliver direct service to 300,000 older New Yorkers. Developing a community-based participatory research approach to issues affecting older people is a priority recognized by NIH. Currently no published research syntheses document in a rigorous way the value added to research projects by using CBPR. Similarly, no research documents benefits to research organizations by adopting CBPR. We apply the RE-AIM framework (R. Glasgow) to evaluate the impact of the CITRA program on investigators, the research organization, and community research partners. Key CITRA activities are a pilot studies program that matches researchers to agencies and centers interested in hosting projects, an investigator development program, and researcher-community workshops on key elder service issues. Outcomes being assessed are standard indicators of investigator productivity, investigator adoption of community-based methods, agency research capacity and readiness to partner, successful dissemination of study findings, and adoption of findings by policy makers. Early CITRA successes include: 1) adoption of two study findings into agency practice city-wide; 2) high productivity among pilot investigators; and 3) institutionalization of the CITRA investigator education program at both Cornell campuses.