COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND PARTNERSHIP (CEP)

Modified Project Summary/Abstract Section The goal of the Community Engagement and Partnership component (CEP) is to ensure that patients and key stakeholders are integrated into all phases of PRIHSM’s research to improve maternal health. PRIHSM focuses on postpartum hemorrhage (PPH), which is one of the most common causes of severe maternal morbidity (SMM) and maternal mortality. While engagement of patients and communities in biomedical research is increasingly recognized as a best practice for promoting health , there is a dearth of engagement in setting research priorities for SMM and limited understanding of patients’ lived experiences after an obstetric complication. These limitations are even more stark when considering issues such as severe PPH and its short and long term physical health outcomes, which are the focus of PRIHSM’s research projects. Strong, bidirectional patient and community partnerships and effective engagement strategies are essential for identifying and implementing the most promising interventions to reduce SMM and maternal mortality due to PPH. Thus, CEP will create bidirectional partnerships with patients, key stakeholders, and community-based organizations that represent individuals affected by the study outcomes through these Specific Aims: Aim 1. Build, strengthen, and sustain bidirectional community-university partnerships focused on improving maternal health; Aim 2. Integrate perspectives of patients, providers, and healthcare leadership into PRIHSM’s research, using tailored, innovative engagement strategies such as data storytelling and research prioritization activities to promote partner-driven solutions to improve patient-centered outcomes; Aim 3. Develop and implement strategies to disseminate PRIHSM’s findings to a broad audience and translate them into clinical policy and practice to promote maternal health, using innovative approaches such as mini-grants to community partners, digital storytelling of study findings, and in-person community gatherings to facilitate maximum engagement and uptake of key health information. Each of these aims is synergistically aligned with our research projects and training objectives. Successful completion of these Aims will result in strong, sustainable community-university partnerships dedicated to improving maternal health and create a blueprint of best practices for successful community-engaged research focused on maternal health.