Research Matchmaker (RM): a Prevention-Oriented Search Engine to Help Communities Address Root Causes of Poor Health

America’s health care system hasn’t generally embraced prevention.  Most resources are spent on established illnesses and injuries, not maintaining or improving health.  Federal interest in health informatics has focused on the electronic medical record and telemedicine, reflecting prevailing ‘treatment over prevention’ priorities.  This ignores and overlooks the vital contributions of community organizations providing essential health promotion, medical, and ‘social determinants of health’ services, typically in settings other than health care providers’ offices.  These services occur in schools, work sites, communities of faith, battered women shelters, barber shops, food pantries, homeless shelters, under bridges, and beyond.  The question is how to move upstream and refocus attention on prevention. 
Research Matchmaker (RM) is a developing, virtual, prevention-focused search engine to help community leaders recruit essential, but often locally unavailable, strategic planning and professional expertise.  Advocates can clearly define local needs, demographics, desired multidisciplinary consultants, and research needs (finding grant sources, writing proposals, research design, interns/class projects/clinical practicums.  Like a ‘choemeba’ - a cross between a chameleon and an amoeba, RM adapts to the size, shape, color and texture of each community’s specific needs, and broadcasts this image in easily searchable formats to potential state-wide partners.  College students and faculty, nonprofit/faith-based groups, businesses, and government agencies can then identify initiatives relevant to their interests at a keystroke. 
RM will help small ‘communities of practice’ develop across Georgia, focused on the most urgent needs identified by grassroots communities.  Together they will learn from each others’ experiences, insights, and professional expertise, deepen collective understanding of the issues, and develop critical proficiencies for addressing health disparities.  This will leverage existing expertise and resources from multiple sectors to help community organizations target the root causes of poor health, at minimal cost to the government.  RM is designed with capacity to expand nationally/internationally, after field testing in Georgia.