Making Strides Toward Community-Engaged Research for Oral Health: An Overview of AIDPH’s PCORI Award

In 2023, AIDPH joined the inaugural cohort under the Building the Capacity of Small Organizations Engagement Award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). PCORI’s engagement award program is designed to support initiatives that encourage active, meaningful involvement of patients, families, caregivers, and the broader health and health care community as integral members of the patient-centered CER enterprise. This two-year award is intended to build AIDPH’s capacity for patient-centered CER in veteran, LGBTQIA+, and rural oral health.

AIDPH has developed a national research agenda and call to action for the oral health community. Developed collaboratively by the AIDPH’s Oral Health Community Advisory Board and the Oral Health Community Engaged Research Task Force (OHCER), this publication features national survey research that informed more than 80 research questions and priorities for patient-centered CER and community-engaged research in oral health. 

The purpose of this report is to outline a community-developed national research agenda for oral health. The primary aims include:

• Provide clear, actionable strategies for building patient-centered CER through community-engaged oral health research.

• Create a launching point for clinical, population, and community-based oral health research that reduces disparities and improves health outcomes.

• Establish a framework for meaningful and equitable engagement in CER, particularly for rural communities, veterans, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and people with disabilities.

Multiple publications captured capacity-building achievements for broader dissemination to the oral health research community. Designed to serve as a springboard for academicians, community members, researchers, and other stakeholders, these publications prioritize patient-centered CER in clinical, population health, and community engagement activities.

The Oral Health Community Advisory Board (OHCAB) is a diverse group of patients, advocates, and professionals who represent AIDPH’s core communities of focus—veterans, LGBTQIA+ individuals, rural populations, and people with disabilities. Formed through the Engagement Award, the OHCAB ensures that community voices are driving AIDPH’s oral health research. Over the past two years, the OHCAB co-designed engagement strategies, identified priority research topics, created research resources, and co-facilitated national convenings. 

Resource: A Rubric for Community Engagement in Research

This initiative was funded through an Engagement Award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (EASO 29031).