| Initial project ideas | Final project processes | Impact of Study |
---|---|---|---|
Stakeholder meetings | |||
 Input from health services & community- based researchers | One-on-one meetings with select faculty | Roundtable meeting with experts from throughout the continuum of community outreach to policy implementation | Group feedback enhanced a bigger-picture thinking of the overall goals, towards which the current project would be a first step |
 Input from community | Development of a steering committee | Work with established community advisory councils | Capitalizing on already existing relationships with the community is pragmatic and feasible |
 Input from clinicians | Focus groups with clinicians | One-on-one meetings with clinicians | Clinicians have little time, so arranging one-on-one meetings on their schedules is more practical |
Study planning | |||
 How to approach potential study participants | Meet with church pastor | Meet with church pastor; present during Sunday services; meet with congregants | Importance of meeting the congregation and introducing the topic personally, and presenting the project as a cancer prevention strategy rather than focus on disparity |
 How to describe the study | Study flyer | Study flyer, study brochure, in-person meetings at the church to explain the project | Interacting with potential study participants in multiple ways allows for an iterative process to best share study information |
Participant recruitment | |||
 Location | Clinics | Community (at a local church) | Individuals are most comfortable at sites they frequent and trust |
 No. of events and sites | Multiple dates and sites | One-day event on site at one church | Scaling down to for ease of execution and assessment of logistics |
 Date and timing of event | Sunday after services | All-day Tuesday prior to evening services | Provides flexibility for potential participants |
 Consent | In-person consent | Electronic + in-person consent | To make the event logistics work more smoothly, make as many tasks available to be completed prior to the day of event as possible |
 Study enrollment | In-person enrollment | Online + in-person enrollment | (see above) |
Study event | |||
 Questionnaire | Potentially relevant gastric cancer risk factors, plus detailed lifestyle variables | Shorten as much as possible - remove religiosity questions, but add questions to help think about long-term implementation | Participants need to feel that the questions are reasonable, not invasive (like religiosity questions), but that also get to the larger issues of beliefs/behavior, physician interaction, and finances |
 Biospecimen Collection | Breath test, blood draw, stool sample | Breath test and blood draw | The stool sample would not have added significantly more information, but would create an additional barrier to participation. |
 Participant reimbursement | Amazon gift card | Walmart gift card plus boxed meal, social security number waiver received | Walmart was favored by this community; participation during lunch or dinner hour highlighted importance of boxed meal; requiring a social security number provides an additional barrier. |
Follow-up | |||
 Individual results | No return of individual results | Results mailed to participant with an accompanying phone call by study team within 2 weeks of study event | There is value and need to give back to participants. Follow-through includes: staff phone-calls to results, patient navigators provided to those with financial barriers, and physician executive summary to inform guideline-concordant H. pylori treatment. |
 Re-testing | No re-testing | Follow-up events at church to re-test after treatment | There is documented ~ 30% failure of H. pylori treatment to eradicate; re-testing allows us to re-visit the community, confirm eradication or to support seeking of salvage treatment. |