Practice Engagement & Translation (PET)
We bring communities and researchers together to create long-term solutions to improve the health of the broader population. We focus on the biggest public health problems, working with community partners who are ideally positioned to make an impact on those who have been historically marginalized. Our research is driven by the priorities of our community partners and emphasizes sustainability through leveraging technology and shared resources.
With a health equity framework, we address the gap between research discovery and program delivery by facilitating late-stage translational research in healthcare systems and public health settings.
The Practice Engagement Team is funded by NIH's National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS) UM1TR004409, and recieves individual project funding from a variety of sponsors.
Team Science
Facilitate Community-Engaged Practice Research and translational research addressing prevention and control of chronic and infectious diseases through:
- Behavioral interventions
- Biomedical informatics and health information technology
- Addressing health inequities
- Implementation science
Strategic Partnerships
- Develop multi-level and multi-sector partnerships, connecting community members and diverse scientists
- Engage with regional community healthcare and public health systems to raise awareness of active and pending Community-Engaged Practice Research
- Create dissemination pathways for Community-Engaged Practice Research
- Current partners: state primary care associations, departments of health, cancer coalitions, community health centers, large health systems, and academic institutions.
Training/Mentorship
Recruit, educate, and mentor diverse scientists to address T3–T5 translational research with community-engaged practices to reduce health inequities.
- Advise scientists through CEPR Consultation in:
- Best practices for working with community-engaged practices
- Identification of appropriate practice partners
- Ethical approaches to T3–T5 community-engaged research and health equity
- Pragmatic trial conduct and implementation
Current Projects
Projects with diverse funding to address community practice priority areas
- Tobacco cessation for adolescents and adults
- Colorectal cancer screening
- Telehealth physical therapy for pain management
- COVID-19 testing and vaccination
- Health information technology capacity
- Persistent poverty
- Social Determinants of Health
- HPV vaccination
- Healthy lifestyle
David Wetter, PhD, MS
Director
Email: david.wetter@hci.utah.edu
Kara Kikuchi, ND
Community Practice Programs Manager
Email: kara.kikuchi@hci.utah.edu