Get Involved
Health Equity Journal Club
The Summer 2024 Health Equity Journal Club will be held on Tuesdays at noon via Zoom:
- July 2nd @ 1:00 pm (*please note time change)
- July 9th
- July 16th
Download the flyer: Health Equity Journal Club Flyer
Join the Zoom: https://umaryland.zoom.us/s/97106897768?pwd=oqXdrIt8XuuQbalhERKwBLbWGbrSnl.1
Read related articles: Food Insecurity, Neighborhood Food Environment, and Health Disparities
Community Engagement in Research
Participatory Health Research (PHR) encompasses a wide range of collaborative approaches in the health context, all of which are inclusive, with the goal of maximizing involvement by those whose life or work is the subject of research in all stages of the research process.
PHR harnesses equitable opportunity for those with experiential and methodological expertise to meaningfully maximize their involvement in the research process and creates collaborative spaces for those who typically have power and those that often do not. Participatory processes ensure ‘transparent involvement of different stakeholders’ and that all voices are heard. This level of participation is difficult to achieve. Power imbalances and social hierarchies can jeopardize PHR in its potential to bring about positive and long-term change.
Building relationships, infrastructure, and power-sharing processes requires significant time. Given the busy schedules of academic and non-academic partners who often juggle multiple commitments, devoting significant time to develop equitable research partnerships can be a barrier.
Recognizing the importance creating safe spaces for building trust and engaging in topics of power and power sharing in research, Dr. Laundette Jones, co-director of the Program in Health Equity and Population Health, presented a seminar series that unpacked the topic “Ethics in PHR”. Those interested in putting principles into practice, using the PHR method in their research, ethical challenges that may arise, and enhancing their ability to tackle such challenges participated in the 6 week series starting in December 2023 and concluding in May 2024. Recordings and meeting materials can be found below. Check back here for more information on when this work group will begin meeting again.
Recordings:
October 2023:
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November 2023:
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Download the Participatory Health Research Guide to Ethical Principles and Practice: ICPHR Ethics Position Paper
December 2023:
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Slides: week 1
January 2024:
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Slides: week 2
February 2024:
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Slides: week 3
March 2024:
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Slides: week 4
April 2024:
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Slides: week 5
May 2024:
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Slides: week 6
Foundational Science in Health Equity Research
With genetic and genomic research crossing disciplines, population descriptors—such as race, ancestry, ethnicity—are often inconsistent or, even inappropriately, used. Even researchers who have long worked in science often do not describe their protocol’s population correctly. That’s why the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine convened a committee to write a
report on how to do it correctly. But reading the 240-page report—titled Using Population Descriptors in Genetics and Genomics Research: A New Framework for an Evolving Field—can be daunting.
“That’s why I have started a work group and book club to tackle the report chapter-by-chapter and have a great discussion around the issues the report raises,” says Timothy O’Connor, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, faculty at the Institute for Genome Sciences, and Co-Director of the Program in Health Equity and Population Health. “It’s critical that all scientists use these terms correctly.”
The work group is not meeting over the summer, but check back here for the Fall 2024 meeting schedule.