The Patient and Community Engaged Research (PACER) Center aims to lead Baylor Scott & White Research Institute (BSWRI) toward optimizing and tailoring engagement strategies for patients of widely varying socioeconomic and health status, age, health literacy, geography, and identity for engagement with traditionally hard-to-reach patients across BSWH’s large catchment areas. Our PACER Center team has extensive recruitment experience with diverse populations using blended strategies to leverage resources and standardized protocols, while enlisting patient engagement and feedback.
Objectives:
- El PACER Center proporciona orientación y sirve como recurso para los investigadores y el personal de investigación de primera línea para involucrar e inscribir a poblaciones diversas.
- El PACER Center brinda apoyo a los equipos de investigación y a los investigadores en el desarrollo de métricas para la participación de poblaciones diversas en estudios.
- The PACER Center tracks metrics and monitors enrollment and recruitment progress with interested research study partners after identifying solutions to enrollment and retention challenges experienced
PACER team
Director
Katherine Sanchez, PhD, LCSW
PACER Center Director
El Dr. Sanchez es el Director del Centro de Investigación del Centro de Investigación Participativa de Pacientes y Comunidad (PACER) del sistema Baylor Scott & White Research Institute (BSWRI) de Baylor Scott & White Health (BSWH). Dirige un programa de investigación reconocido a nivel nacional, financiado por múltiples agencias federales y estatales.
La Dra. Sanchez ingresó al programa de doctorado en la Universidad de Texas en Austin después de quince años de práctica de trabajo social clínico, principalmente en entornos médicos con poblaciones de habla hispana sin seguro y desatendidas. La Dra. Sanchez es una investigadora clínica con amplia experiencia en la investigación de intervenciones efectivas dirigidas a mejorar la prestación de servicios de atención médica conductual. Ha examinado el papel de la salud conductual integrada en la mejora del acceso para todas las poblaciones, y tiene una agenda de investigación adicional para traducir la evidencia en la atención médica conductual integrada mediante la capacitación de trabajadores sociales en intervenciones basadas en la evidencia que han demostrado ser efectivas.
In 2023, Dr. Sanchez was awarded $7.5 million from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) to establish the Texas Cohort of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Connect for Cancer Prevention study to enroll patients from geographically dense and rural, diverse populations to leverage the clinical resources and research infrastructure of the largest non-profit integrated health care system in Texas. Dr. Sanchez is the BSWH representative to the governing board of the Health Care Systems Research Network (HCSRN). This network of 20 non-profit healthcare delivery systems was formed in 1994.
She is the BSWH site PI for the NIH-funded Mental Health Research Network (MHRN) and the NIDA Clinical Trials Network (CTN) Addiction Research Network, Health Systems Node, both multi-health system networks which bring together researchers and research departments embedded in large and diverse healthcare systems in a population-based approach to transforming behavioral health care; with expertise in mental health research as well as epidemiology, health services, economics, disparities, outcomes & quality assessment, as well as conducting pragmatic clinical trials in our health systems.
Dr. Sanchez currently serves on the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Technical Expert Working Group (TEWG) for Patient-Centered CER Competencies, where she shares her expertise in partnering with patients and tailoring research with diverse populations across large catchment areas. Previously, she served on the PCORI Advisory Panel on Healthcare Delivery and Disparities Research (HDDR) for three years where she applied her experience and expertise to helping PCORI refine and prioritize the research it funds and ensure that the research PCORI supports centers on the outcomes that matter to patients and other healthcare decision makers.
Dr. Sanchez is a fellow of the Implementation Research Institute (IRI) and is well prepared and supported to conduct research on examining barriers and facilitators to implementing evidence-based interventions in health delivery systems.