UMass Ambulatory Research Consortium (ARC)

The Ambulatory Research Consortium (ARC) is a Practice Based Reseach Network (PBRN) based at UMass Chan Medical School. ARC is a collaboration of the departments of Family Medicine and Community Health, Medicine, Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, and the UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS). The network is built on the premise that actively involving clinicians, patients and other stakeholders in all phases of the research process will enhance the relevance of the questions, improve implementation of protocols, and significantly improve the translation of results into practice. Member practices participate in primary care research within an academic institution with substantial experience and resources for research design, data collection and analysis and community engagement. UMPBRN provides infrastructure support for studies originating from UMass as well as for partnership with external investigators.

ARC mission 

• Identifying and addressing research and quality improvement questions important to primary care providers, patients, families, and their communities
• Pursuing a research agenda that includes a focus on the specific health, disease, and health services issues of communities historically excluded from research to advance health equity, and
• Providing a research resource for undergraduate and graduate medical education in primary and community health.