Promotores de salud and community health workers: an annotated bibliography.

For underserved and disenfranchised communities in the United States, affordable, effective health care can be nearly inaccessible, which often leads to the exclusion of these communities from relevant medical information and care. Barriers to care are especially salient in minority communities, where language, traditions and customs, socioeconomics, and access to education can serve as additional roadblocks to accessing health care information and services. These factors have contributed to a national health disparity crisis that unnecessarily places some communities in a vulnerable position without adequate prevention and treatment opportunities. One solution to the exclusion some communities face in the health care system may be the promotores de salud (PdS)/community health worker (CHW), an approach to culturally competent health care delivery whose popularity in the mainstream health care system has been steadily growing in recent decades. Known by a wide variety of names and broad in the spectrum of health issues they address, the PdS/CHW serves as cultural brokers between their own community and the formal health care system and can play a crucial role in promoting health and wellness within their community. This annotated bibliography was created to educate the reader about the history, definition, key features, utility, outcomes, and broad potential of the CHW approach in a variety of populations. Intended to serve as a reference point to a vast body of information on the CHW/PdS approach, this document is a resource for those wishing to effect change in the disparities within the health care system, and to improve the access to, quality, and cost of health care for underserved patients and their communities. Promotores de Salud is a Spanish term that translates to Health Promoter. A female health worker may be referred to as a Promotora, a male as a Promotor, and the plural of both is Promotores. For the purposes of this bibliography, the terms community health worker and promotores de salud may be used interchangeably.

Researching together: a CTSA partnership of academicians and communities for translation.

BACKGROUND: The Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CCTSI) aims to translate discovery into clinical practice. The Partnership of Academicians and Communities for Translation (PACT) represents a robust campus-community partnership. METHODS: The CCTSI collected data on all PACT activities including meeting notes, staff activity logs, stakeholder surveys and interviews, and several key component in-depth evaluations. Data analysis by Evaluation and Community Engagement Core and PACT Council members identified critical shifts that changed the trajectory of community engagement efforts. RESULTS: Ten "critical shifts" in six broad rubrics created change in the PACT. Critical shifts were decision points in the development of the PACT that represented quantitative and qualitative changes in the work and trajectory. Critical shifts occurred in PACT management and leadership, financial control and resource allocation, and membership and voice. DISCUSSION: The development of a campus-community partnership is not a smooth linear path. Incremental changes lead to major decision points that represent an opportunity for critical shifts in developmental trajectory. We provide an enlightening, yet cautionary, tale to others considering a campus-community partnership so they may prepare for crucial decisions and critical shifts. The PACT serves as a genuine foundational platform for dynamic research efforts aimed at eliminating health disparities.

Using health information technology to engage communities in health, education, and research.

The August 2011 Clinical and Translational Science Awards conference "Using IT to Improve Community Health: How Health Care Reform Supports Innovation" convened four "Think Tank" sessions. Thirty individuals, representing various perspectives on community engagement, attended the "Health information technology (HIT) as a resource to improve community health and education" session, which focused on using HIT to improve patient health, education, and research involvement. Participants discussed a range of topics using a semistructured format. This article describes themes and lessons that emerged from that session, with a particular focus on using HIT to engage communities to improve health and reduce health disparities in populations.