The Hospital’s community engagement programs, which were instrumental in recruiting volunteers for the university’s COVID-19 research, are a resource for the local community and a route to developing and designing responsive community-based health initiatives to serve low-income and under-resourced neighborhoods. In this endeavor, the Hospital has partnered with the Clinical Directors Network, a practice-based research network that conducts studies in safety-net community health centers. This collaboration has helped to expand university studies of infectious diseases. For example, scientists were able to learn more about how Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a serious bacterial infection that is resistant to some antibiotics, spreads in the community and which hygienic practices are best for preventing reinfection. Another example is a project that aims to stem an emerging Chagas disease epidemic by building a full-spectrum team of clinicians and scientists, developing an education and training outreach program, and evaluating using electronic health record data to characterize the epidemiology and testing/treatment of this disease.
