Abstract B014: The power of bidirectional learning: Bridging the gap between communities and scientists by promoting “inreach” and community-science bilingualism
Authors: Owens Bianca , Mosavel Maghboeba , Schifano Katelyn , Pierre-Louis Josly , Sullivan Stephanie , Sheppard Vanessa , Winn Robert , Tossas Katherine 
Published: January 2023

Background: Medical mistrust and lack of clinical trial awareness are often cited as barriers to clinical trial enrollment for Black/African American and rural residents. However, our community needs assessment at the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Massey Cancer Center (MCC), identified a striking discordance: our community reported high awareness of clinical trials and willingness to participate, but this was in contrast to their abysmal participation in research and/or clinical trials. Given the role of misinformation in perpetuating communication barriers between researchers and the community, we sought to determine if targeting scientists’ communication led by community feedback would decrease the barriers between science and community. We did so by connecting two most distal groups: basic scientists from the VCU-MCC cancer biology (CB) program and lay community members from urban and rural under-resourced neighborhoods within MCC’s catchment area. Methods: CB program researchers shared 10-minute presentations of their work with urban (Petersburg) and rural (Brunswick) community members. Thereafter, 30-minute semi-structured focus group discussions with a subset of attendees were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim; results were summarized using thematic analysis. Notably, the racial/ethnic makeup of both counties are such that Black/African American is the majority with Petersburg and Brunswick counties having 60% and 20% less White, respectively. Results: Seven themes emerged: (1) relevance and application of scientific knowledge, (2) improve comprehension and salience, (3) interactive visuals to connect with audience, (4) community values science to improve quality of life (advancement & sustainability), (5) authentic dialogue is critical for building trust and mutual learning, (6) there is limited knowledge of cancer biologists role, and (7) actionable steps that impact the cancer care continuum. Both urban and rural participants expressed an interest in understanding the application of the presented scientific knowledge to the lives of people that share aspects of their salient identities. A participant from the urban sample said, “… I would’ve loved to have had more knowledge on Black women, uh, prone to cancer over the White [women].” Rural participants generally thought that the verbage used in the presentations would not be easily understood by fellow laypeople suggesting the presenter “slow it down” and include “animated videos.” When asked what they would like scientists to focus on next, rural participants expressed interest in actionable steps that impact the cancer care continuum. One person stated, “Prevention things can never be heard enough…[and] how you deal with it.” Conclusions: Results reveal a striking opportunity to improve understanding among basic scientists on how they can be of value to both urban and rural communities. A video-based curriculum intervention for community biologists to improve community-science bilingualism and promote bidirectional learning and engagement is underway.

Citation Format: Bianca Owens, Maghboeba Mosavel, Katelyn Schifano, Josly Pierre-Louis, Stephanie Sullivan, Vanessa Sheppard, Robert Winn, Katherine Tossas. The power of bidirectional learning: Bridging the gap between communities and scientists by promoting “inreach” and community-science bilingualism [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 15th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2022 Sep 16-19; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2022;31(1 Suppl):Abstract nr B014.