Vol. 1, No. 28

Follow @RADxUP on Twitter

Action Items: Project leaders should submit quarterly survey about all your project’s publications, presentations, and publicly available engagement products. 

Dear RADx-UP Partners, This week, many of us will gather with family and friends to give thanks for the good things in our lives. We have much to be thankful for, from the science that is helping to end this pandemic to the community members around us who give strength. As we pause from our formal work this week, let’s take every opportunity to encourage our loved ones to trust and understand the public health measures that we know continue to be so important. In honor of Native American Heritage Month, we've highlighted a story about the American Indian and Alaska Native working group and a book for children from the Center for American Indian Health at Johns Hopkins University.   And a quick but heartfelt note of thanks to all who participated in the COVID-19 Equity Evidence Academy last week. The team that organized that two-day event will follow up with a report of all that you contributed, but in the meantime please see this Twitter thread that summarized the event.

Next Project-wide Meeting Our next Project-wide Meeting will be Thurs., Dec. 9 at 2 p.m. ET. This is one week before the originally scheduled date to reflect the holiday season. Who should attend: Project team leaders and study coordinators. On the agenda: Introduction to the new Colectiv electronic data capture platform. Community Consultation Studio Our twice-yearly Community Consultation Studio will be Thurs., Dec. 1 at 3 p.m. ET. Contact Hailey Leiva by 11/29 to register. Who should attend: Project members who use the RADx-UP Resources Page, or want to. On the agenda: Discuss content gaps, scholarship dissemination, community partner involvement (Community Partners will be paid $150 to attend)

NIH UNITE Listening Sessions to Discuss Racial & Ethnic Equity In December, NIH will begin a series of listening sessions as part of the UNITE initiative to identify and address structural racism within NIH-supported entities and the greater scientific community. RADx-UP project teams and community partners have important insights and are encouraged to participate in the sessions. Learn more and register to participate.

Health equity requires the right data Warren Kibbe and Giselle Corbie, two of the three co-PIs of the RADx-UP CDCC, contributed an important perspective published this week in STAT First Opinion. In The U.S. needs to engage communities around BIPOC data they tie our collective work to collect data through RADx-UP to longer-term goals of health equity.

Across the Consortium

Earlier this year, Spero Manson, a member of the RADx-UP Steering Committee, along with Dedra Buchwald, contributed a perspective piece to the journal Health Equity. In Bringing Light to the Darkness: COVID-19 and Survivance of American Indians and Alaska Natives, they highlighted the intrinsic strengths and resilience with which Native peoples are addressing the pandemic. The RADx-UP CDCC asked Manson to discuss some of the main points from the piece. Manson also spoke about achievements of the RADx-UP American Indian Alaska Native working group and the group’s work with the NIH to define how the RADx-UP NIH Common Data Elements can respect Tribal sovereignty. Watch the video.

Our Smallest Warriors, Our Strongest Medicine The Center for American Indian Health at Johns Hopkins University has produced two storybooks for children to help them understand COVID-19 and to honor their teachers in the pandemic. Find these books, and more, on the Center’s Parent Resources page.

RADx-UP Evaluation and Tracking team has sent its quarterly survey to project leaders asking for details about all publications, presentations, and publicly available engagement products. See the Publications page on RADx-UP.org for a list of known scholarship generated by RADx-UP project teams, including both academic papers and reports.

Project Presentations More presentation recordings from last month’s RADx-UP Scientific Meeting are now available in the video library.

Pregnancy and COVID-19 Testing and Vaccines A new RADx-UP flyer provides answers to common questions and provides facts about testing and vaccination for pregnant people. It is available in Spanish and English.

CDCC Grant Programs The deadline for the next cycle of proposals to the RADx-UP CDCC Community Collaboration Mini-Grant Program and the The RADx-UP CDCC Rapid Research Pilot Program is Dec. 10. Thank you for spreading the word.

Newsletter Archive Previous editions of the RADx-UP CDCC Newsletter are archived on the Communications Toolkit page of myRADx-UPhome.

Please contact us at RADx-UP-CDCC@duke.edu or through your assigned CDCC EIT (see current list under Engagement Impact Teams). Use this form to alert the CDCC to resources like the item above or other information coming out of your project or community.