1. Objectives
• Estenda Solutions, Inc. has developed a functioning prototype
of a website called Community-Driven Research (CDR)
• The goal of CDR is create an online social environment for
non-researchers who have an interest in and health
researchers
– We call these groups ‘Contributors’ and ‘Researchers’
• CDR will connect contributors and researchers so they can
share interests and ideas, and collaborate on all stages of the
research process
– I.e., from asking the questions to generating hypotheses to designing
the research protocol to publishing the findings

2. Core Concepts
• Used as a means to drive • Contributors, on their own or • Studies grow from Ideas, or
conversations and create through conversations about they can be created
Ideas their Interests, develop Ideas independently
• Contributors explore the • Ideas are submitted to CDR, • To create a Study, the
Interests that exist on CDR for further discussion or researcher supplies a
and view the conversations action description
others are having about them, • Once an Idea is created, other • Once a Study is created, it is
or they create new Interests contributors can join the available for contributors to
• Interests are meant to cover conversation review
health-related issues, but can • As more people join the • If a Study is created from an
be open-ended conversation, the Idea can Idea or Interest posted at CDR,
• Conversations about Interests evolve contributors who are
can be tagged to provide a • Contributors can vote on following the Idea or Interest
high- level overview of what Ideas, which establishes a are invited to join the Study
the conversation is about to ranking system; allows most • Researchers can also search
allow discovery popular topics to rise to the for and invite contributors,
• Contributors can specify why top for discovery by based on their other
they have an Interest Researchers Interests and Ideas

3. Formalizing the
Contributor-Researcher Connection
• CDR is an open system; generating Ideas is not
exclusively within the bailiwick of the researchers. All
contributors can see their Ideas go from a concept to an
actual Study
• However, researchers need to meet certain expectations,
and CDR facilitates this with an application process for
participating in Studies
• The process delineates clearly the roles and expectations
of contributors and researchers, including:
– Prerequisites
– Time commitment
– Compensation, if any
• Additionally, CDR has a Glossary that is intended to
educate contributors about the requirements that
researchers must meet; terms such as “protocol”,
“Institutional Review Board”, “proposal”, and “clinical
study”

4. Accessibility and Sustainability
• CDR is a web site, accessible from any Internet-connected computer or
Smartphone. This increases access for rural populations
• For people for whom English is a 2nd language, CDR can translate content
• For people with visual impairments, CDR has a generic, high-contrast color
palette and allows users to increase font size
• A full production version of CDR would comply with Section 508 guidelines
• Because people have different vocabularies for health terms, CDR creates
relationships between different Interests. Parent-child relationships and peer
relationships or aliases can be created
• Though Interests, Ideas, and Studies, and social features such as
conversations, community ranking, and tagging, CDR can connect people of
differing needs and goals
• For sustainability, full production development will incorporate search engine
optimization techniques and conduct a marketing study to determine the
most efficient way of promoting the website to the desired audiences

5. Products for Review
CDR is a fairly complete prototype and could be
considered an early beta version of the
complete site:
http://www.communitydrivenresearch.com/
A video showing how to use CDR is available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJxi1wF26no