Priority Area #5: Research

Goal: The Department will increase its national recognition for its research focused on health promotion and disease prevention and on innovative approaches to delivering evidence-based practice in primary care, with a particular focus on eliminating socioeconomic and racial health disparities.

Objective 1: The Department’s core research faculty will formally organize as a Research Group on Primary Care Quality, Access and Outcomes that will expand the productivity, visibility, and relevance of its research

Strategies:

1.1 We will establish high functioning research teams of department investigators focused on thematic areas that build on Department strengths and priorities.

1.2 We will develop activities and materials that promote the Research Group internally and externally.

Objective 2: Working with community practices and partners, Medical School departments and ForHealth Consulting, we will enhance our approaches to research collaboration that are bidirectional and responsive to community priorities

Strategies:

2.1 Our collaboration with community partners will be built on bidirectional and equitable relationships that foster research that is relevant and improves community health.

2.2 We will utilize the Department’s Practice-Based Research Network as a primary vehicle for practice-based research.

2.3 Our partnerships at the medical school, including ForHealth Consulting, the Department of Quantitative Health Science, the Prevention Research Center, and the Meyers Primary Care Institute, will be organized to enhance community-engaged research.

2.4 We will develop an expanded research agenda that builds on our strong relationship with the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers.

Objective 3: We will enhance the scholarly environment across the Department through strengthened efforts in the residencies, fellowships, and at each of our health centers

Strategies:

3.1 We will enhance the Department’s infrastructure to support expanded scholarly opportunity and productivity for the clinical faculty.

3.2 We will strengthen scholarship within our Family Medicine residencies by implementing faculty-mentored,longitudinal quality improvement projects for each resident.

3.3 We will strengthen the integration between our Preventive Medicine residency and our research faculty to enhance the breadth of Preventive Medicine resident projects and to support Departmental research.