Building a research agenda for community health centers and the medically underserved: meeting proceedings.

THE PROBLEM: Community, migrant, and homeless health centers (CHCs) are an integral component of the nation's safety net with a proven record of success in access, quality, and cost effectiveness. Still, as CHCs face rising numbers of vulnerable patients and shrinking resources, they must continue to improve quality of care to further narrow health disparities, as well as demonstrate their cost effectiveness and value to policymakers. PURPOSE: CHCs, researchers, national partners, and others met in December 2005 to produce a consensus-driven research agenda that lays out research priorities for CHCs and the medically underserved. This article details the meeting process and resulting research agenda. KEY POINTS: The meeting focused on three domains that touch on community need: health information technology (HIT), quality improvement, and cost effectiveness and value. Community representatives helped to drive research priorities. CONCLUSIONS: CHCs must continually demonstrate their efficiency and effectiveness. Accordingly, the research agenda must be continually revisited through a collaborative process.