CCPH Fellows 2002/2003: Darius Tandon

Darius Tandon is the Research Director of Baltimore's Success by 6® Partnership and a Research Associate in the School of Medicine at The Johns Hopkins University. He completed his Ph.D. in Community Psychology and Prevention Research in the University of Illinois at Chicago's Department of Psychology where he was a National Institutes of Mental Health fellow in Urban Children's Mental Health. Dr. Tandon's broad research interests focus on the design and evaluation of community-based preventive interventions in urban populations. In particular, he is interested in using theory-based evaluation to determine intervention effectiveness and to provide timely feedback to improve intervention implementation. Dr. Tandon is working with The Johns Hopkins University's Urban Health Initiative to strengthen its work in establishing an interdisciplinary, applied urban research entity, focused on improving health and health access within neighboring low-income communities. Prior to his work in Baltimore, Dr. Tandon worked for six years on a CBPR project in Chicago that aimed to promote the development and training of indigenous community leaders to prevent substance abuse in a low-income neighborhood. Stemming from this project, he has co-authored several publications, including invited submissions in the recently published From Subjects to Subjectivities: A Handbook of Interpretive and Participatory Methods and Handbook of Action Research: Participative Inquiry and Practice.

Project Title

Development of a community-based participatory research curriculum for community pediatricians

Project Description

This CCPH Fellowship project has three components. First, a training curriculum in community-based participatory research (CBPR) will be developed for General Academic Pediatrics Postdoctoral Fellows, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars, and Pediatric Residents in The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Department of Pediatrics. Second, curriculum modules will be delivered at weekly seminars held by the above-mentioned groups. Third, the curriculum will be disseminated for use with similar audiences outside Johns Hopkins University.

There are three overarching contributions of this project:

1. Integrating CBPR into the practice of community pediatrics. Reading CBPR literature alone is insufficient in preparing the next generation of academic pediatric researchers to conduct CBPR. Moreover, few senior faculty are knowledgeable about CBPR; these senior faculty are largely responsible for mentoring Postdoctoral Fellows, Clinical Scholars, and Pediatric Residents. Thus, while a central contribution of this work is to train early career academic pediatric researchers in CBPR, senior faculty involved in the fellowship and residency programs in The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine will also benefit from the curriculum.

2. Building the CBPR capacity of a cadre of academic and community-based pediatricians. Postdoctoral Fellows, Clinical Scholars, and Pediatric Residents can use the knowledge and skills from the nine-module CBPR curriculum in their subsequent pediatric research. Moreover, individuals receiving the CBPR curriculum can mentor new cohorts of community pediatricians at the academic institutions where they work.

3. Disseminating the CBPR curriculum to other academic and community-based pediatricians. Several training programs throughout the country would benefit from this CBPR curriculum. For example, the Anne E. Dyson Community Pediatrics Training Initiative funds ten departments of pediatrics to develop educational curricula related to community-based health care. The CBPR curriculum will be disseminated to Dyson Initiative leadership as well as leadership from other academic departments of pediatrics that have similar ideological views on the nature of community-based pediatric care.

Project Products

A Community-Based Participatory Research Curriculum for General Pediatrics Fellows - developed and implemented by CCPH Fellow Darius Tandon. Twelve General Academic Pediatrics Fellows in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine received this eight-hour curriculum during the 2002-2003 academic year. To view the curriculum click here. To view the curriculum outline click here.

A Community-Based Participatory Research Curriculum - developed by CCPH Fellow Darius Tandon. This "abridged" two-hour version of the curriculum was created with the recognition that many academic departments and training programs within Schools of Medicine may be interested in CBPR, but have limited time in which to learn about CBPR. Having a shorter curriculum, therefore, may help promote wider understanding of CBPR among medical educators and physicians. To view the abridged curriculum click here. To view the abridged curriculum notes click here.