UMB ICTR

The ICTR has partnered with community engagement experts across campus to form the ICTR Community and Collaboration Core (CCC) to provide all UMB campus faculty access to up to 50 hours of free community-engaged research-related expertise. 

Faculty from JHU, UMBC, and UMCP, please email ICTR-Navigator@umaryland.edu with inquiry about how to access ICTR resources. 

‌Engaging patients, families, and communities in the full spectrum of research not only allows them to make better health care decisions, but also helps to identify community health needs and priorities, contribute to relevant research questions leading to appropriate research design and methods, develop culturally sensitive and ethical proposals, enhance recruitment and retention of research participants, and implement and disseminate research findings more effectively.  

The goal of the ICTR Community and Collaboration Core (CCC) is to foster and facilitate this community engagement and collaborative effort by providing access to expert patient- and community-centered services and resources. ICTR-supported services include:

ACCESS TO THE PATIENTS PROGRAM

• The PATient-centered Involvement in Evaluating the effectiveNess of TreatmentS (PATIENTS) Program partners with patients and care providers to answer questions about the best treatment options to improve health and quality of life. People from all communities, especially those from underserved and minority populations, are engaged in every step of the patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) process. Through collective efforts, an effective learning health care community is created. Research priorities are aligned with the values of patients and communities to make research more relevant and patient-centered. The PATIENTS Program trains patients, stakeholders, and researchers to become co-developers of PCOR. Up to 50 hours of ICTR support can be to help the researcher in one of the following areas:
  • Create a focus group and interpreting focus group results, or
  • Develop participant instruction videos, or
  • Assemble an advisory board, or
  • Connect you with a Citizen Scientist. A Citizen Scientist is a community member who has received training on how to review research proposals and offer input on the relevance and feasibility in the proposed population, or
  • Assist with writing the community-engagement section of your extramural grant proposal  

RESEARCH VEHICLE 

• Researchers can check out transportation for a few hours or for a day to transport the study team and supplies to a site in the community.  The vehicle cannot be used to transport patients or participants.