Case Study:
Plan out the details to organize, track, and report research activities to meet the funder’s requirements and community’s needs.
Snippet:
In the end, this first time NIH-funded Principal Investigator received a 20-page program management plan that outlined the details of managing all aspects of her community-focused research. It was specific to her study, but also flexible in areas so it could be adapted as the research changed.
She now knew where to start; she had clarity. She was even more confident than before. As a bonus, she was thrilled when she discovered that the plan could also be used as a training manual for future research staff and volunteers.
Project Description:
Social-behavioral intervention for children with type 1 Diabetes
Project Duration:
October 1, 2020 – September 30, 2025
A postdoc, Dr. Wong received notification of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) K award focused on developing a social-behavioral intervention for children with Type 1 diabetes. She worked extremely hard to submit a solid grant and the stress, long hours, and countless meetings paid off.
She reached out to me for assistance because although she was elated to receive her first grant (and rightfully so), she wasn’t sure what to do next. She had mentors who were invaluable in providing guidance related to science or research methodology questions.
What she needed at this point in the process was administrative guidance on translating the proposed research activities into actionable activities that could be tracked.
Her department did not provide training on this, nor did she have the funds to hire experienced research support staff to assist her with the administrative duties. She had to launch this research program on her own.
I helped Dr. Wong develop a program management plan, using the PHRC mapping method.
To initiate this process, she submitted her research plan to me for review. This process involved carefully mapping the proposed research activities to the PHRC components for effective research management.
I scrutinized the research plan to develop systematic procedures for conducting and tracking meetings, recruiting and enrollment, data collection, data analysis, Just-In-Time requirements, Institutional Review Board (IRB), Budget, Hiring, Audits, etc. After a two-hour meeting to review the program management plan, another round of revisions, the final plan was complete.
In the end, this first time NIH-funded Principal Investigator received a 20-page program management plan that outlined the details of managing all aspects of her community-focused research. It was specific to her study, but also flexible in areas so it could be adapted as the research changed.
She now knew where to start; she had clarity. She was even more confident than before. As a bonus, she was thrilled when she discovered that the plan could also be used as a training manual for future research staff and volunteers.
Case Study:
Let us equip you with a plan that will help manage research activities and identify problems before you start the work.
Snippet:
I trained a Graduate Research Assistant using the Public Health Research Consulting (PHRC) mapping method to define the management activities appropriate for her type of study.
Learning how to map out each detail helped her identify potential challenges that may arise when tracking study progress. She knew that failing to address these barriers early on could impact the quality of her research, her well-established professional credibility, and the community trust she has worked so hard to build.
Project Description:
Smoking Cessation Intervention for the African American community
Project Duration:
September 1, 2020 to August 31, 2022
A public health Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) planned to submit a National Institutes of Health (NIH) federal grant (F30) to support her health disparities-focused dissertation on developing a smoking cessation intervention for the African American community. She was extremely knowledgeable about effective smoking cessation interventions as well as the culture and needs of the community.
She needed help strategizing how to effectively manage the day-to-day activities of the study and she knew planning this out beforehand was ideal. With responsibilities from school, work, local and national presentations, and publication development, she was not sure how the research study would fit into her already jam-packed schedule.
The GRA needed a plan to help balance her increasing responsibilities as a future pioneer in the field. I knew I could help her with managing the various administrative components of the research process.
I trained her using the Public Health Research Consulting (PHRC) mapping method to define the management activities appropriate for her type of study. Learning how to map out each detail helped her identify potential challenges that may arise when tracking study progress.
She knew that failing to address these barriers early on could impact the quality of her research, her well-established professional credibility, and the community trust she has worked so hard to build.
Let me give you an example of a problem we identified early on.
While mapping out how she would track the progress of recruitment, enrollment, and data collection, we discovered that the location originally confirmed for participant meetings was not ideal for the African American community.
There were several reasons for this:
1) the African American community had a negative perception of that particular hospital
2) parking was not free and the GRA did not have enough in the budget to cover parking costs
3) there was no guarantee that the hospital meeting spaces would be available when needed.
So now what?
After our discussion, she reached out to her network and partnered with a local minority-focused organization that instantly agreed to host the meetings, free of charge, and most importantly, where the participants would feel most comfortable. There were several other challenges identified specific to her research study that were resolved before she submitted the grant.
In the end, the GRA submitted her grant and expressed comfort in knowing that major challenges were addressed before she started the work in the community. She was confident knowing her future research would reflect who she was as a professional: confident, knowledgeable, trustworthy, and community-focused.
