Breaking down communication barriers: The role of bioethics in a cancer partnership

The University of Alabama at Birmingham, the Morehouse School of Medicine, and Tuskegee University have formed an NCI-funded Cancer Center partnership. The partnership has projects in Cancer Education, Community Outreach, and Research in health disparities at the basic, clinical and population level. Working with partner ethicists, the Tuskegee University National Bioethics Center serves as a shared resource providing ethical review of research projects and training in research ethics. The Bioethics shared resource additionally creates a space for intra-partnership dialogue. It does so uniquely by adapting the lessons of cultural competence and community-based participatory research to its own intra-organizational dynamics. The aim is to break down communication barriers within the partnerships to facilitate the integration of efforts that cut across institutions, disciplines, and communities.