Coordinating Center for the DECIPHeR Network

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
This proposal describes plans for a Research Coordinating Center (RCC) at the University of
North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill to support and enhance the work of the Disparities
Elimination through Coordinated Interventions to Prevent and Control Heart and Lung Disease
Risk (DECIPHeR) Network. The RCC will coordinate research activities and collaborations
among Implementation Research Centers to maximize the synergistic effect of multiple
investigators working on different projects, all designed to improve the implementation of
evidence-based interventions. As the RCC, our aims are to:
1. Provide organization and management
2. Supply cross-study research coordination and support data analysis
3. Facilitate research skills development and capacity building
4. Promote dissemination and initiate partnerships
The UNC team has an exceptionally strong record of successful coordination of multi-center
studies that includes building collaborations between investigators, planning and facilitation of
meetings and training workshops, construction of cross-study resources of original data and the
design and analysis of multi-level studies. The team has deep experience and a long history of
publications in population-level cardiovascular research with an emphasis on ethnic disparities.
The group has strong expertise in community-level behavior change, prevention research and
implementation science; as well as both quantitative and qualitative data analysis. We are
eager to support the work of the T4 Implementation Research Centers in the conduct of
outstanding research that will reduce or eliminate cardiovascular and/or pulmonary health
disparities.