Research Fundamentals and Training for Multi-Stakeholder Research Teams

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) engages patients and other partners in all phases of comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) and patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR). Some partners may not be familiar with phases of a research study, and some researchers may not be familiar with how to engage with patients and other partners who represent other perspectives such as clinicians and policy makers.

With funding from PCORI, AIR developed two free, online learning packages to help partners, researchers, and research teams build knowledge and skills. Both packages use plain language, are 508-compliant, and are mobile accessible.

• The Research Fundamentals learning package is for partners and others who are new to health research. The package includes five self-paced modules – one for each step in a PCOR study:
   

  1. Developing Research Questions;
  2. Designing the Research Study;
  3. Planning Patient-Centered Consent and Study Protocols;
  4. Sampling, Recruiting, and Retaining Study Participants; and
  5. Understanding and Sharing Research Findings. 
      

  It also includes a plain language glossary of common research terms.
   

• The Building Effective Multi-stakeholder Research Teams learning package provides information and resources to help researchers and partners with different backgrounds and experiences work together to conduct health research. It addresses two key areas:

  1. Engaging Stakeholders to be Active Members of the Team, and
  2. Working Together as an Effective Multi-Stakeholder Team.

  
  The package includes more than 50 evidence-based resources, including tip sheets, checklists, videos, interactive scenarios, and activity guides, on a range of topics, including inclusive behaviors, defining roles, team norms, productive disagreement, and collaborative problem solving.

In addition to designing and creating the packages, AIR collaborated with an advisory group comprised of experts in team science and stakeholder-driven research to help guide development and dissemination of the learning packages.