Organizational factors that enhance community health center research engagement

Federally-Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) are community owned and community directed primary care organizations that provide comprehensive health services to 22 million people across the U.S. in medically underserved areas.  FQHCs can make a significant contribution to public health research given their unique patient populations, unique model of care and governance structure, and deep knowledge and involvement with their communities.  However, more information is needed on what affects FQHCs’ ability to participate in research.

A national survey recently conducted by three community-academic partnerships (National Association of Community Health Centers, Clinical & Translational Science Institute at Children’s National, George Washington University Geiger Gibson Program, South Carolina Primary Health Care Association, University of South Carolina, and the Community Health Applied Research Network ) sheds light on FQHCs’ research activities, capacity, and needs.  Basic survey frequencies have been previously presented.  To better understand how to enhance FQHCs’ ability to participate in research and build research capacity, partners at the George Washington University conducted additional analyses using the national survey data to identify operational and patient demographic factors that contribute to FQHCs’ participation in research.  FQHCs with research experience were more likely to be urban and have more patients, more enabling services providers, and more total revenues per patient compared to FQHCs with no experience.  This presentation focuses on and compares the key operational and patient variables that enable or challenge FQHCs’ participation in research and describes why these variables are important.  It also identifies potential policy levers to facilitate FQHC engagement in research.