A 5-YEAR UPDATE ON THE BUILDING RESEARCH CAPACITY INITIATIVE
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* Peter Seidenberg
* Navkiran Shokar
* Jessie Vera
* Amanda Weidner
* Julie Sutter

Research and scholarship are intrinsic to the discipline of family medicine. All family medicine departments and residency programs seek to build and sustain research and scholarship capacity appropriate to their own goals and situation—their own ways to contribute to the scientific advancement of the practice and discipline of family medicine. That’s where the Building Research Capacity (BRC) initiative comes in. In 2016, we reported on the advent of BRC in this commentary space1 and today we give an update on how the program has continued to expand and evolve over the last 5 years.

## BRC Offerings and Evolution Over the Last 5 Years

Since 2016, BRC has been working to provide opportunities for all departments and residency programs to engage family medicine leaders, researchers, and each other by offering interactive workshops at national family medicine meetings, sharing curricular examples to build a culture of inquiry, supporting a consultation service for departments or programs (more below on this), as well as evaluating and assessing all our efforts on an ongoing basis. In the last 5 years we have also gathered and shared data on family medicine research capacity and output2-7 and have piloted a fellowship program which will formally launch with a larger cohort this year.

The Building Research Capacity Steering Committee has begun 2021 with new changes in leadership with an eye toward succession planning and a broader framework to expand our culture of inquiry. ADFM and NAPCRG worked jointly to recruit a new chair and vice chair of BRC with terms that began in June. We are thrilled to welcome Dr Peter Seidenberg as our new Steering Committee Chair and Dr Navkiran Shokar as our Vice Chair and look forward to tapping into their experience and leadership to guide the committee as BRC moves to its next phase. We additionally want to thank Dr Bernard Ewigman for his 6+ years of service creating, leading, and guiding the BRC Initiative and the Steering Committee. His vision and leadership have driven this effort from the first day, and we so appreciate his investment and his continued willingness to serve as a mentor and resource to our team. We will continue to build out succession plans for committee members as another step in this program’s evolution and maturation.

## The New BRC Fellowship

In 2021 we are also launching the new BRC Fellowship. The purpose of the BRC Fellowship is to equip individuals with the knowledge, leadership skills, mentorship, and peer support to develop and implement a strategic plan for building research capacity within their own programs, departments, or institutions. Fellows might be chairs, aspiring chairs, research directors, research change agents in a residency program, administrators, or others charged with making change in the organization. BRC fellows display skills in leadership, research organization, and faculty development. Candidates will be change agents for building their organization’s capacity for producing scholarly activity. The fellow’s organization should support development of that capability, including supporting the development of a strategic plan as a product of the BRC Fellowship.

The inaugural cohort of BRC fellows will begin in conjunction with the 2021 NAPCRG Annual Conference. We encourage all who may be interested to learn more here: [https://adfm.org/programs/building-research-capacity-fellowship/](https://adfm.org/programs/building-research-capacity-fellowship/).

## BRC Resources & Consultation

As a main part of its mission and efforts, BRC continues to offer resources and consultation services to all departments and residency programs. BRC Consultations range in scope, helping departments and residency programs to enhance and expand scholarly activity, from evaluation and improvement of educational and clinical programs to increasing capacity to compete for external grant funding. Initial exploratory discussions are held at no charge and more in-depth consultations are tailored to individual client goals and needs. Consultations may be short term or longitudinal and can include bringing one of the consultants on-site in person or may be conducted entirely virtually. If you are interested in learning more about a BRC consultation for your department or residency program, please contact Jessie Vera, ADFM Program & Communication Coordinator at jvera{at}adfm.org.

*   © 2021 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.

## References

1.  1.Ewigman B, Davis A, Vansaghi T, et al. Building research & scholarship capacity in departments of family medicine: a new joint ADFM-NAPCRG initiative. Ann Fam Med. 2016; 14(1): 82-83. [https://www.annfammed.org/content/14/6/585](https://www.annfammed.org/content/14/6/585)
    
    [FREE Full Text](http://www.annfammed.org/lookup/ijlink/YTozOntzOjQ6InBhdGgiO3M6MTQ6Ii9sb29rdXAvaWpsaW5rIjtzOjU6InF1ZXJ5IjthOjQ6e3M6ODoibGlua1R5cGUiO3M6NDoiRlVMTCI7czoxMToiam91cm5hbENvZGUiO3M6ODoiYW5uYWxzZm0iO3M6NToicmVzaWQiO3M6NzoiMTQvMS84MiI7czo0OiJhdG9tIjtzOjIzOiIvYW5uYWxzZm0vMTkvNS80NzEuYXRvbSI7fXM6ODoiZnJhZ21lbnQiO3M6MDoiIjt9) 

2.  2.Weidner A, Peterson LE, Mainous AG 3rd., Datta A, Ewigman B. The current state of research capacity in US family medicine departments. Fam Med. 2019; 51(2): 112-119.
    
    

3.  3.Mullen R, Weidner A, Liaw W, Mainous AG, Hester C, Goodyear-Smith F, Nease D, Schneider FD, Ewigman B. Family medicine research capacity in the USA. Family Practice. 2021;38(2):186-188. [https://doi.org/10.1093/fampra/cmaa119](https://doi.org/10.1093/fampra/cmaa119)
    
    

4.  4.Liaw W, Eden A, Coffman M, Nagaraj M, Bazemore A. Factors associated with successful research departments a qualitative analysis of family medicine research bright spots. Fam Med. 2019; 51(2): 87-102.
    
    

5.  5.Liaw W, Petterson S, Jiang V, Bazemore A, Pecsok J, McCorry D, Ewigman B. The scholarly output of faculty in family medicine departments. Fam Med. 2019; 51(2): 103-111.
    
    

6.  6.Liaw W, Bazemore AW, Ewigman B, Turin TC, McCorry D, Petterson S, Dovey SM. Advancing bibliometric assessment of research productivity: an analysis of US Departments of Family Medicine. J Prim Health Care. 2020; 12(2): 149-158.
    
    

7.  7.Weidner A, Peterson LE, Mainous AG, Ewigman B. Attitudes and Perceptions of research among US family medicine department chairs. Fam Med. 2021; 53(2): 98-103.