Building Research Infrastructure and Capacity (BRIC)
Overview
A key approach to developing CRH faculty and staff is to engage three nationally recognized rural health services researchers to serve as mentors for this project. These seasoned researchers have provided consultation regarding the CRH research team’s development of the BRIC research project proposal, and will assist the BRIC team to enhance their research capacity, foster existing partnerships, and develop new collaborations. The CRH’s goal is to promote the professional development, success and retention of new faculty members, and create a group of rural and frontier health services research leaders among the faculty. The development of the research faculty will be enhanced through a research project which examines inter-hospital transfers.
The research study design incorporates two components to examine factors affecting inter-hospital transfer and outcome in rural and frontier hospitals in North Dakota. The first component identifies the factors which significantly effect outcome (i.e., survival/death) of patients transferred from rural and frontier hospitals. The second component involves a qualitative research design to generate baseline knowledge concerning the transfer decision making process in North Dakota’s rural and frontier hospitals.
Upon successful completion of the BRIC program, a proposed collaboration with CRH and the UND School of Aerospace Sciences will explore programs implemented by the aviation industry that may be incorporated for use in the field of health to improve health care quality and decrease medical errors. Aviation error management issues such as communication, leadership, interpersonal relationships, preparation, planning and vigilance are factors that have application to clinicians in urban, rural and frontier hospitals.
Goals
The goal of BRIC is to build the research and infrastructure capacity necessary for multidisciplinary approaches to conduct broad-based health services research by implementing the following strategies:
Develop faculty health services research expertise;
Create a sustainable data infrastructure to support rural and frontier health services research;
Leverage the dissemination expertise of the CRH; and
Build upon established entities in the state and region to strengthen the capacity and resources required to conduct rural and frontier health services research using regional and national data.
