Project Components

MEE worked with Dr. Vanessa Northington Gamble [LinkedIn] at the Tuskegee University National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care in 2006. MEE developed Website content and consulted on backend technology that could help the Center enhance its Internet presence. The Center’s goal for the website was to create an online community of users who are like-minded in their interest in improving healthcare, health disparities among people of color, bioethics, public health issues and more.

MEE started the project with the National Center for Bioethics in Research and Healthcare at Tuskegee University in 2004, and we conducted formative research to determine the content, design and appeal of a proposed website highlighting the Center. MEE conducted focus group research with three audiences:

• African American adults in Chicago (blue-collar) and Los Angeles (white-collar)
• African American HBCU undergraduate students at Morgan State University
• Graduate students enrolled in the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University

In addition, MEE conducted three (3) expert interviews with leading scholars who had unique insights about the Tuskegee Study and bioethics in general. This report provides an overall analysis of the research data, the representative responses from the focus group participants and recommendations for the development of a prototype website for the Center.