The University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (LDI) is launching Amplify@LDI,  a new dissemination training program designed to assist its Senior Fellows in reaching a wider audience with research and policy insights.

Media acumen has become an increasingly important skill for researchers as growing numbers of NIH grants require the inclusion of dissemination elements. Simultaneously, it’s widely recognized that academic journals and policymakers rarely meet. LDI’s new initiative is designed to address both these issues.

“Amplify@LDI sits right at the intersection of our mission and our expertise,” said LDI Director of Engagement Alison Buttenheim, PhD, MBA. “It seeks to build interest among our Senior Fellows in engaging with the media and policymakers, and to build critical skills in research translation and dissemination. We have considerable in-house expertise in these areas, and have also forged partnerships with outside experts to further extend the topics and skills covered in the Amplify program. We hope to make Amplify@LDI a signature program in research translation and dissemination at Penn.”

Content and Policy Experts

The goal of Amplify@LDI is to do what its name says: amplify the reach and impact of policy-relevant research and elevate LDI Senior Fellows as content and policy experts. The program will build capacity in and enthusiasm for the critical step of translating and disseminating research to broad national audiences, to maximize the reach and impact of LDI Senior Fellow research.

The dozen LDI Senior Fellows signed up for the current cohort are from Penn’s Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Law, Engineering, and Arts & Sciences. They are: David Abrams, PhD; Norma Coe, PhD; Sharath Guntuku, PhD; Sean Hennessy, PharmD, PhD; Sara Jacoby, PhD, MPH, MSN; Genevieve Kanter, PhD; Elinore Kaufman, MD, MSHP; Emily Ko, MD, MSCR; Melanie Kornides, ScD, MPH, APRN; Julia Lynch, PhD; Holly Fernandez Lynch, JD, MBE; and Courtney Schreiber, MD MPH.

This full-scale launch of Amplify@LDI follows a beta version of the program rolled out last year in which Senior Fellows helped to define the content and structure of the media relations curriculum.

“It was time well spent,” said LDI Senior Fellow Catherine McDonald, PhD, RN, FAAN, who was one of the beta participants. “It certainly increased my confidence in dissemination strategies, including interviews, social media and op-eds.”

Seven Topic Areas

The seven sessions of the new program run from September to April. Each focuses on a different aspect of research translation and dissemination. Topics include Media Engagement and Interviewing; Increased Social Media Reach; Writing and Placing Op-eds; Writing Blogs and Briefs; and Policy Engagement.

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