The Center for Community Health (CCH)

The Center for Community Health (CCH)

The Center for Community Health (CCH) was established in 2006 to support community-academic health partnerships to improve community research and service. Its mission is to: To join forces with the community to promote health equity, improve health through research, education, services and policy, and establish local and national models for prevention and community engagement. The CCH was founded by Nancy M. Bennett, MD, MS, and is located off-campus in the heart of the Rochester community. The CCH employs six multidisciplinary faculty members and 69 staff, receives $1M in institutional support and approximately $5-6M in extramural funding each year, and provides consultation and support to faculty, staff, and students throughout the URMC to establish community-based initiatives and research. The CCH coordinates and convenes the Community Advisory Council and the Population Health Interest Group and serves as a hub for community based research and service throughout the URMC. The philosophy of the CCH, joining research and community service, has resulted in increased community engagement and population health research across departments and schools leading to research addressing community priorities, such as obesity, diabetes and mental health, and increased attention to the translation of basic science to community health improvement. The CCH supports community research and interventions, in collaboration with the Monroe County Department of Public Health (MCDPH) and other community-based organizations, to reduce health disparities and to prevent communicable and chronic disease. These include CDC, NIH, NYS and foundation-funded research programs in the application of behavioral science to health improvement, health improvement programs, and community health policy. For nearly ten years, the CCH has led the community engagement activities and coordinated the Greater Rochester Practice Based Research Network of the URMC’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute, as well as developing resources for community engagement education and for recruitment and retention. Recently the CCH has assumed the coordination of the Upstate New York Translational Research Network.

In addition to chronic disease prevention research, the CCH is home to the Rochester Emerging Infections Program, a site for the national CDC funded Emerging Infections Program. The Rochester site focuses on research related to influenza, human papillomavirus vaccine, pneumococcal disease, and healthcare associated infections.

CCH Facility:

The Center for Community Health provides office and work space to 75 faculty, staff, and students and is located off campus in the City of Rochester at 46 Prince Street. The CCH is home to physicians, nurses, clinical nutrition specialists, health project coordinators, community liaisons, community health workers, finance administration and support staff. It also provides a centrally located meeting place for community groups.

CCH Technology/Computer Resources:

The CCH makes available to its faculty, staff and students over 80 state-of-art personal computers and portable units. The University’s Information Technology Services, a group of over 400 professionals, provides technical support services (including website support and networking / telecommunications) for the University Community. CCH offices are equipped with 7 network printers, copy machines, fax facilities, a professional video observation lab, and computers linked by a computer network with Internet access. These include a Xerox WorkCentre 7845 and a Xerox WorkCentre 5330 which are capable of copies, e-mails, scans and faxes. All internal hard disks on CCH workstations and portable devices, are fully encrypted using Pointsec encryption software which is the standard for federally mandated HIPAA compliance. Each CCH workstation is running Sophos anti-virus software to protect against computer viruses. Sophos software is automatically updated on a regular basis. Email messages on Medical Center Email Servers are also scanned for viruses, and anti-spam software filters out spam. CCH users typically work with programs such as Microsoft Office Suite, SAS, SPSS, ArcGIS for Windows, and EndNote.

The CCH is interconnected with the University of Rochester Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, and Nursing, and Strong Memorial Hospital’s electronic resources, including the Edward G. Miner Library’s online biomedical knowledge base, which contains over 200,000 bound volumes, 1,700 periodicals, a large selection of monographs and textbooks, and access to a wide variety of computer databases. The CCH has an onsite Healthy Living Library which provides access to health information for internal/external users.

Community Advisory Council

The URMC Community Advisory Council (CAC), created in 2006 to represent the voice of the community and guide and support the four missions of the URMC (education, research, clinical care and community health). The CAC, comprised of 22 community leaders from multiple sectors (e.g., health and human service agencies, government, business, community-based organizations, the faith community, media, and community coalitions) meets quarterly, is coordinated by the Center for Community Health (CCH), and works with the CCH to identify and analyze community health data, establishes health priorities, and provides community input to the clinical enterprise as well as education and research. In particular, the CAC advises the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, providing consultation to investigators in all phases of research, partnering on specific research projects, and participating in the dissemination of findings.

The Population Health Interest Group

The Population Health Interest Group (PHIG) is an interdisciplinary, interdepartmental group that serves as a resource to advance research and education programs in population health and community engagement at the University of Rochester. The committee collaborates with the clinical and community service programs across the University, and fosters discussion about relevant research, events, activities, developments and progress at local, regional and national levels. The PHIG is convened by the Center for Community Health and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute. The group is open to all UR faculty, staff and trainees with an interest in population health or community engagement research.