Rural360: incubating socially accountable research in the Canadian North

• Published in: International Journal of Circumpolar Health
• Main Authors: Shabnam Asghari, Thomas Heeley, Anna Walsh, James Rourke, Cheri Bethune, Wendy Graham
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2019
• Subjects: capacity building; social accountability; research skills; physicianled; community-driven; newfoundland and labrador; canada; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Arctic; Newfoundland; Canada; Circumpolar Health; International Journal of Circumpolar Health
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1080/22423982.2019.1633191; https://doaj.org/article/42ca54a7d7764cfcac7fdf07660aa9ce

People in Northern Newfoundland and Coastal Labrador (NNCL), Canada, face major challenges obtaining accessible and contextually-relevant healthcare. Rural360 is a socially accountable research incubator that provides funding for NNCL physicians to research solutions to these issues. NNCL graduates of the adjoined 6for6 research training program for rural physicians are invited to submit the research project they have conceptualised as part of that initiative as a letter of intent, and subsequently as a research proposal, to Rural360. These submissions are reviewed by relevant subject matter experts as part of the Rural360 adjudication process. This process is iterative and strives to guide and assist participants in refining their submission. The overarching objective of Rural360 is to collaborate with rural physicians to conduct, disseminate or otherwise catalyze unsupported community-based research in NNCL. In so doing, it is highly socially accountable, empowering participants to become change-makers who investigate contextually important health issues that emerge from NNCL communities.