As the primary teaching affiliate of Boston University School of Medicine, Boston Medical Center is a key partner of the Community Engagement Program. Located in Boston’s South End neighborhood, Boston Medical Center (BMC) is the largest safety net hospital in New England. BMC serves all patients, regardless of insurance status or ability to pay. Over half of BMC patients are from an underserved population, and about a third are non-native English speakers.

• The CE Program has established partnerships with several departments at BMC, including the BMC Community Engagement team and the Health Equity Accelerator. These partnerships focus on opportunities for BU and BMC to collaborate outreach and engagement methods, including convening advisory boards. Partnering with Community Engagement and the Health Equity Accelerator ensures that all Boston communities are engaged in our work.
• The CE Program works collaboratively with the BMC Clinical Trial Office (CTO) and its Clinical Research Network (CRN). These partnerships focus on methods for the successful engagement of diverse populations in clinical research trials.

The Boston HealthNet Research Collaborative (BHNRC) is an integrated health care system consisting of Boston Medical Center and 13 community health centers dedicated to improving the health of Boston’s low-income and minority populations. BHN ensures access to high-quality care and cutting-edge technology across the care continuum of primary, specialty, and tertiary healthcare services. BHN focuses on maintaining individualized and culturally sensitive care throughout Boston’s local neighborhoods through disease prevention and health education tailored for the most vulnerable populations.

The BU CTSI Community Engagement Program supports research collaboration with the Boston HealthNet Community Health Centers. Click here for more information about the research collaboration process.

The BU CTSI is one of four federally-funded Clinical and Translational Science programs in Massachusetts. All four Massachusetts Clinical Translational Science Award University hubs, Harvard University, Tufts University, and the University of Massachusetts convene quarterly to share information about their programs, strategies, and progress in each of their Community Engagement initiatives, and to collaborate on programs that benefit greater Boston and Massachusetts communities. In 2024, the MA CTSA Hubs hosted a webinar series on Housing, Homelessness, and Health in partnership with community- and systems-level panelists. View the recorded series below!

Housing, Homelessness, and Health: What do we know about housing and health and what is being done?
January 17, 2024

Speakers Tom Byrne, MSW, PhD, Jeneczka Roman, MPH, and Elizabeth González Suárez, MA discussed connections between housing, homelessness, and health, what is being done, models of community development and pending legislation that could address some of the issues, and community perspectives.

What Can Communities Do? (Apr 2024)

Housing, Homelessness, and Health: What Can Health Systems Do?

July 1, 2024

Health systems experts Marissa Conner of Kaiser Permanente, and Eileen O’Brien and David of Boston Medical Center share their perspectives on housing programs and policies, how they impact the health and well-being of communities, and how health systems can help shape policy in the domain of housing.

The Advancing Equity in Health Research CAB is a collaboration among Boston leaders affiliated with community-based organizations, the Boston University (BU) Clinical Translational Science Institute and the Boston Medical Center (BMC) Clinical Research Network. The CAB supports research at BMC and BU by creating opportunities for the university, academic medical center, researchers, and community to engage in bi-directional communication about equity in research for specific projects and to promote improvements to make research more community engaged.

The community leaders reflect the diversity of Boston neighborhood demographics, job categories, types of businesses and other factors that define the groups most adversely impacted by health inequities.  These members are committed to advocating for the proper allocation of resources and initiatives for their communities to address structural and social determinants of health. Click here to Meet the CAB Members!
The CAB meets monthly and is available for ad hoc consultations with researchers upon request. Using the Health Equity in Research Rubric, the CAB supports researchers to improve equity in their projects at any stage of the research process. Click here to view the CAB Consultation Timeline.  If you are interested in having the CAB review your research project, contact Daniel MomPoint, at dannym@bu.edu.

Here is a video from one of our CAB Members, Brandon Tilghman, which highlights why it is important for the community to be involved in the research process: