Clinical Research Community Advisory Board

The UH Clinical Research Community Advisory Board (CAB) is group of engaged, diverse community members who want to learn more about clinical research and help provide a better patient experience by engaging in discussions, giving feedback, and helping raise awareness about the importance of clinical research.

Each CAB member’s unique background—personally and professionally—contributes to rich discussion about everything from ethics in clinical trials to the best ways to share results with networks for the greatest community impact.

Join the UH Clinical Research Community Advisory Board and lend your voice!

Purpose

The Clinical Research CAB aims to:

• Include community members into the research process
• Help build trust between researchers and community members; and
• Develop a mutual understanding of research topics.

Goals

Integrate community perspectives into research studies and UH CRC’s decisions.

• Bring together a diverse group of UH community members
• Foster an environment that provides community members a space to speak on the design and implementation of research
• Develop relationships among the UH community to create a network built on trust to dispel myths about clinical research and educate the community on the research process

Sample Assignments

You do not have to be a physician-scientist to provide feedback on research processes and procedures that directly impact patient experience. We all have a valuable healthcare experience that we can build off and translate to meaningful insights that may direct how clinical research is accessed by, completed, and communicated to our community. Some of the assignments our CAB members may be asked to complete are:

• Providing feedback on study specific information
• Advisement on ways to raise clinical research awareness in the community, including in diverse and special populations
• Providing insight on effective ways to recruit and retain participants, or provide feedback on existing recruitment advertisements and materials
• Providing insight from the previous study experience
• Help with messaging and wording – what makes the most sense to the community members? What are the most effective ways to communicate with, inform, or reach community members?

Representation

We cannot improve our research processes without representation from a broad cross-section of community members. These individuals will use their perspective, colored by their experiences, to speak or act on behalf of those who may or may not be in the room or at the table, but whose lives will be impacted, directly or indirectly, by the clinical research work we do and support. Examples of board members can be:

• Community residents
• Clinicians
• Principal investigators
• Local government officials
• Public health officials
• Business owners or representatives
• Faith-based institution leaders
• Community service providers
• Housing agencies
• Criminal justice representatives
• Community development corporations
• Insurers
• The entire UH Community

Inclusion

Our Clinical Research Community Advisory Board strives to include a wide range of people from all walks of life within the UH community:

• Racial minority (i.e., refers to a person's physical characteristics, such as bone structure and skin, hair or eye color; e.g., African-American or Black, Caucasian or White, Asian, Native American, etc.)
• Ethnic minority (i.e., refers to cultural factors, including nationality, regional culture, ancestry, and language; e.g., of German or Spanish ancestry regardless of race)
• Differently abled (e.g., challenges with vision, movement, thinking, learning, communication, mental health, social relationships)
• Age (e.g., children (0-17), young adults (18-30), senior citizens (60+))
• Religion (e.g., Amish, Jehovah Witness, Catholic, Christian, nondenominational, Muslim, etc.)
• LGBTQIA (i.e., lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, and asexual or allied)
• Gender (i.e., either of the two sexes (male and female), especially when considered with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological differences)
• Military veteran (e.g., current or past member of any branch of the military, active or reserve)