Information for Interested
Researchers
The Rx Kids research plan is centrally coordinated by MSU-Hurley Children’s Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative. Novel research projects must be reviewed and receive approval from the project’s co-directors, Dr. Mona Hanna and Professor H. Luke Shaefer. Please email [email protected] with inquiries.
The Rx Kids ongoing research program is robust, community partnered, and investigates many outcomes. Duplicative efforts are unlikely to be approved by the Rx Kids research team.
No research that meaningfully changes or adds to the program’s key components will be considered. Research that imposes conditions on participants, adds any sort of means-testing, or adds additional interventions (such as financial literacy or parenting classes) will not be considered. Adding requirements is contrary to the simplicity, efficiency, and values of love, dignity, and respect that are central to Rx Kids.
Protecting Community Trust
The relationship between community-based researchers and the populations they serve is a privilege and must be treated with the outmost care. The Rx Kids team, led by the Flint-based MSU-Hurley Children’s Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative, located within the community co-created MSU Charles Stewart Mott Department of Public Health, has a long history of working in humble partnership with the Flint community to build trust and conduct ethical and relevant research.
Because of this deep trust, the Rx Kids team has been able to secure significant community buy-in for its research agenda. This reciprocally beneficial relationship, however, has the potential to be jeopardized: overburdening participants with research or potential breaches of privacy can lead to the loss of trust built up over decades.
For these reasons, Rx Kids research is centrally coordinated. We respectfully ask interested researchers to not conduct research without approval from Rx Kids leadership, in order to preserve the safety and dignity of our participants and the integrity of the program.
