Annals of Health Law
ENHANCING COMMUNICATION
C. Science and Communities
1. Public Outreach and Information
The notion of community engagement in research is not new. The first
major effort to codify best practices for scientific researchers to reach out to
their communities began in the United States in October 1995, when the
CDC and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (“ATSDR”)
partnered to establish the Committee for Community Engagement.70 The
work of this committee was completed in 1997 with the publication of the
first edition of Principles for Community Engagement.71
70. U.S.DEP’ THEALTH&HUM.SERVS.,CLINICAL ANDTRANSLATIONALSCIENCE
AWARDS CONSORTIUM COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT KEY FUNCTION COMMITTEE TASK FORCE
ON THE PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT, PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
xv, NIH Publication No. 11-7782 (2d ed. June 2011), available at www.atsdr.cdc.gov/
communityengagement/pdf/PCE_Report_508_FINAL.pdf.
71. U.S. CTRS. FOR DISEASE CONTROL & PREVENTION/AGENCY FOR TOXIC SUBSTANCES
AND DISEASE REGISTRY (CDC/ATSDR) COMMITTEE ON COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT,
PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT (1st ed. 1997), available at http://www.cdc.gov/
phppo/pce/. A revised second edition of this document was published in June 2011.
PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMEN T (2011), supra note 70.
72. PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMEN T (2011), supra note 70, at 8 (Fig 1.1).
73. Id. at 8.
74. Barbara A. Israel et al., Review of Community-Based Research: Assessing
Partnership Approaches to Improve Public Health, 19 ANN. REV. PUB. HEALTH 173 (1998);
Syed M. Ahmed & Ann-Gel S. Palermo, Community Engagement in Research: Frameworks
for Education and Peer Review, 100 AM. J. PUB. HEALTH 1380 (2010); Vicki Marsh et al.,
Beginning Community Engagement at a Busy Biomedical Research Programme:
Experiences from the KEMRI CGMRC-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kilifi, Kenya,
67 SOC. SCI. & MED. 721 (2008).
75. U.S. Dep’t Health & Hum. Servs., National Select Agent Registry,
http://www.selectagents.gov/. Select agents are “biological agents . . . that could pose a
severe threat to public health and plant health, or to animal or plant products.” About Us,
