Establishing the Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) R-CENTER clinical and translational research web-portal: the role of focus groups.

The Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) Center of Excellence in Clinical and Translational Research has developed a research web-portal to foster research development and collaborations. We describe the role of focus groups (FG). Research faculty and staff were organized into three groups by research interest. Each FG discussion had five steps: Brainstorming, Reporting, Card-sorting, Priority-setting, and Discussions. Integration of top priorities across each FG culminated in a final priority-setting step. Each FG generated 45 to 50 unique ideas during brainstorming that were categorized into 10 to 12 unique categories. Final priority-setting captured six top items for the initial design of the portal: ability to identify researchers working on similar research; common data management tools; access to clinical trials information; participant recruitment tools; secure access to research databases; and financial support. Focus groups allowed for a discovery period that generated common themes for the design and customization of the web-portal.