Disseminating research results to research participants and their communities

There is wide acknowledgement of the need for community engagement in biomedical research, particularly in developing countries. Today, engaging communities has become a critical aspect of planning and implementing biomedical research. The current international research ethics guidelines talk of community engagement as an ethical requirement for research involving human subjects, particularly marginalized populations.1 It is believed that genuine community engagement offers the hope of enhancing recruitment, retention, and participant satisfaction.^2-7 However, there is relatively little published experience of community engagement in practice. Recently, the Centre for Bioethics in Eastern and Southern Africa organized dissemination workshops of results of the Wellcome Trust Bioethics Research Project as part of community engagement. The workshops were organized between the 10th of March and the 17th of April, 2008 in Madziabango, Mpemba, and Bangwe in Blantyre, and Tidziwe Centre (UNC) in Lilongwe. The workshops were attended by 32 health workers/research staff and 128 research participants including community leaders.