How Mobile Program Leaders Can Partner With Researchers
Mobile program leaders enter research partnerships in different ways. A researcher may approach the program with a study idea, leaving the program leader to decide whether and how to participate. At other times, the program identifies an opportunity or an important question and seeks a researcher with the right expertise.
In either case, the partnership should help the program answer an important question without compromising care, community trust, staff capacity, or data privacy. Program leaders should come to the partnership with a clear priority and a realistic picture of their operations and data. The partners should put their agreements about roles, costs, decisions, data, and results in writing.
You do not need a finished study idea before speaking with a researcher. Start with the decision you need to make or the problem you most want to solve.
Begin with the decision you need to make
Useful starting questions include:
- Are we reaching the population we intended to serve?
- Which services or sites should we expand?
- Why are patients not completing referrals or follow-up?
- Is a health or patient-reported outcome improving?
- What makes patients and community partners trust the program?
- What does the program cost, and what resources are needed to sustain it?
- How does mobile care compare with another delivery approach?
Write down the decision first. A researcher can help turn it into a focused research or evaluation question.
Know what kind of help you need
You may need support with:
- Program evaluation
- Quality improvement
- Study design and statistical analysis
- Qualitative interviews or focus groups
- Community-engaged research
- Clinical outcomes research
- Economic or cost analysis
- Implementation research
- Grant development
- IRB and research compliance planning
- Data systems and measurement
Few people have every skill a project needs. Ask who else should be part of the team.
Prepare an honest program summary
Before the first planning meeting, prepare a brief summary of:
- Services, sites, schedule, and staffing
- Population and community partners
- Current goals and challenges
- Existing data sources and known limitations
- Available staff time
- Funding and deadline constraints
- Prior evaluation or research experience
- Decisions your program cannot delegate
Use the Mobile Clinic Research Readiness Assessment to identify gaps.
Ask potential researchers these questions
Fit and purpose
- What experience do you have with mobile, community-based, rural, safety-net, or similar care settings?
- How will the question and design change based on program and community input?
- What can this project reasonably answer?
Work and budget
- What will you need from our staff, patients, data team, and community partners?
- How much time will each activity require?
- Which costs are included in the grant or project budget?
- Which staff positions and percentages of effort are covered?
- Will the project fund a research coordinator or other dedicated position?
- Who will pay for added data collection, technology, supplies, and travel?
- How and when will program and community partners be paid?
Ethics and data
- Which organization will make the IRB determination or review the study?
- What data are needed, and why is each element necessary?
- Who will access identifiable, coded, limited, de-identified, or aggregate data?
- How will consent, privacy, security, and data-sharing requirements be handled?
Decisions and results
- Who decides whether the protocol, recruitment, or measures change?
- Who interprets the findings?
- How will authorship and public presentations be decided?
- When and how will findings be returned to participants, staff, and community partners?
- What happens to the data and unfinished work when the project ends?
Ask for the full cost of participation to be covered
Research participation requires staff time and organizational resources. A mobile program should not have to absorb those costs, especially when the study adds work beyond routine care or reporting. Ask the researcher to prepare the scope and budget with you before a grant or protocol is final.
Costs may include:
- A percentage of salary and fringe benefits for the program leader, clinical manager, data lead, or other staff who will contribute time
- A new or existing research coordinator, project manager, data manager, or community liaison
- Staff time for recruitment, consent, added data collection, follow-up, scheduling, meetings, and review of findings
- Data extraction, cleaning, documentation, secure transfer, and storage
- Devices, software, forms, clinical supplies, translation, interpretation, and accessibility
- Mileage, transportation, lodging, and other travel required for the study
- Preparation time, registration, travel, and lodging when program staff or community partners present findings at a conference
- Allowable administrative or indirect costs
If your program is a separate organization performing a substantive part of the research, ask how it will be included in the proposal. Depending on the role and funder, the appropriate arrangement may be a subaward, consortium agreement, contract, or another written funding mechanism. Have the program’s finance or grants staff review the scope, budget, payment schedule, reporting requirements, and indirect-cost treatment before agreeing.
Review the budget again if the study changes. Added recruitment, data collection, meetings, or reporting should come with the staff time and other resources needed to do the work. If the project cannot cover the added cost, the partners should reduce or redesign the request.
See How Researchers Can Partner With Mobile Clinics for the guidance GMHRC gives researchers about partnership budgets.
Put the partnership in writing
The agreement should address:
- Shared purpose and expected products
- Named roles and decision authority
- Staff effort, salary support, and payment
- Travel, supplies, technology, and other participation costs
- Subaward, contract, or other funding arrangement, when applicable
- Study and operational timelines
- Community engagement plan
- IRB, consent, and privacy responsibilities
- Data ownership, access, permitted use, and security
- Analysis and interpretation
- Authorship and acknowledgment
- Review of program descriptions and public communications
- Return and use of results
- Disagreements, changes, and termination
The data-sharing agreement may be separate from the broader partnership agreement.
Protect care and community trust
Research should not make care slower, less private, or more confusing. Patients should understand that declining to participate will not affect their services. Staff should know when they are acting as care team members and when they are carrying out research tasks.
Reconsider a proposed project if it depends on unpaid program labor, requests data without a clear purpose, uses a trusted relationship as a recruitment shortcut, or gives the program no meaningful role in interpreting and sharing results.
Plan for useful findings
Before the study begins, agree on the practical products it should produce. These may include:
- A program briefing
- A community summary
- A measure dashboard
- A workflow recommendation
- A funding brief
- A peer-reviewed publication
- A conference presentation
- A de-identified dataset or analytic code, when appropriate
Ask when each product will be delivered and who will maintain it.
Frequently asked questions
Where can we find a research partner?
Look for investigators whose methods and community experience fit the question. Potential partners may work in academic medical centers; schools of public health, nursing, or social work; community-based research centers; or fields such as health services and implementation research. GMHRC can help you think through the partnership and the expertise your question may require.
Do we need to know whether the project is research or quality improvement first?
No. Start by describing the purpose, activities, data, and intended use. An authorized institutional office or IRB should make the formal determination when one is required.
What if our data are incomplete?
Discuss the limitation early. The team may refine the question, use a different design, improve data collection going forward, or begin with a feasibility study.
Is it appropriate to ask the researcher to cover our staff time?
Yes. Ask for the staff effort and other costs required by the research to be included in the project budget. This may include a percentage of existing staff salaries, a new coordinator position, added data work, supplies, and travel. Agree on the scope, amount, payment schedule, and funding mechanism before the work begins.
Should we agree to a publication review clause?
Programs should be able to review factual descriptions, privacy risks, and confidential information. The agreement should also protect scientific integrity and prevent the inappropriate suppression of findings. Put the purpose and timeline of the review in writing.
Partnership resources
- Foundational Expectations for Partnerships in Research, PCORI
- Dedicated Funds for Engagement and Partner Compensation, PCORI
- Quality Improvement Activities FAQs, HHS Office for Human Research Protections
Related resources
Have a research question or a program worth studying?
GMHRC helps researchers and mobile healthcare programs find each other and plan work that is useful to both.