Research Education Core (REC)

PROJECT SUMMARY – RESEARCH EDUCATION CORE The Boston Health Equity & community-Aligned Learning Health System (Boston HEALHS) Research Education Core (REC) will support a diverse cadre of scientists to gain skills, expertise, and experience in the learning health system (LHS) competencies, as applied within a safety net system. The REC will provide comprehensive yet individualized mentorship and training in LHS competencies to embedded LHS scientists, building on and adapting existing didactic and experiential educational resources across an academic safety net health system. The REC unites hospital systems, research, and education leaders, providing LHS scientists with connections to leaders across the academic and health system. The REC will be responsible for recruiting internally and externally diverse early and mid-career MD or PhD faculty who possess foundational research training that prepares them for embedded LHS research, leveraging evidence-informed recruitment and retention equity best practices and institutional commitments to support their long-term work in our safety net system; two people per year will be recruited as LHS scientists. Additionally, REC will provide customized career, education, and research mentorship for the LHS scientists through longitudinal mentoring teams to prepare them for careers as embedded LHS scientists. Each LHS scientist will be connected with a mentorship team tailored to their interests. The mentorship structure will be anchored by a paired team – a primary research mentor and a primary health system mentor. The paired approach will ensure breadth and depth of exposure to both research and health system perspectives. Scientists will work with their primary mentorship team to craft an individual development plan (IDP) that addresses career goals, educational plans, and research projects. Further, REC will facilitate an individualized curriculum in LHS science that combines direct instruction from experts in each of the LHS competencies, experiential learning, and access to didactic offerings covering all major elements of the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute methodology standards. The overarching goal of the LHS scientist training program is to expand expertise and capacity in the LHS competencies through offering cross-disciplinary, specialty agnostic, immersive methodologic training and providing networking, support, and mentorship to promising early career and mid-career faculty through the LHS scientists program. Our curricular offerings will provide the resources that the diverse LHS scientists joining Boston HEALHS will require to meet the goals of learning and readiness for an impactful, independent research career.