A Lightship Site Spotlight: Dominion Medical Associates’ Legacy of Community Care
High-performing clinical research starts long before a protocol is introduced. It begins with trust, built over time in the clinician’s exam room through consistency, familiarity, and care that feels personal. At Dominion Medical Associates in Richmond, Virginia, that trust has been earned across generations of families, grounded in long-standing relationships and a foundational commitment to community care.
“Patients must feel comfortable that you have their best interests at heart. And that’s not something you can just say out loud or talk about,” says Dr. Richard A. Jackson, MD. “It has to come across in conversation.”
Dominion Medical Associates at a glance
Dominion Medical Associates is a long-standing primary care practice based in the historic Richmond neighborhood of Jackson Ward. Founded in 1911, the practice has served the community for more than a century, with family leadership spanning four generations. Today, Dr. Richard A. Jackson, MD, serves as Principal Investigator, working alongside his son, AJ Jackson, who leads clinical research operations and helps guide the practice’s growth.
To understand why trust runs so deep at Dominion, it helps to look at the practice’s roots in community access and the history that shaped healthcare in Richmond.
A practice rooted in community access
Dominion’s story is tied to Jackson Ward, which has long served as a center of Black life, culture, and business in Richmond. For generations, community members have come to Dominion for routine care, chronic disease management, and thoughtful, evidence-based guidance through health decisions that affect the whole family. That continuity matters, especially in communities where the healthcare system hasn’t always earned trust.
Dr. Jackson’s grandfather, Dr. Isaiah Jackson, was a pioneering physician, co-founding Richmond Community Hospital, which became a crucial access point for Black patients and Black physicians at a time when care options were limited and segregated. Dr. Jackson describes Richmond Community Hospital as a point of pride for the community, built to provide care with dignity and autonomy.
“It was the pride of the Black community because, as you know, back in those days, the only place you could go was Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU)’s ‘special place’ for folks like us. It was groundbreaking…that we finally have our own real live hospital.”
Today, some of Dominion’s patient relationships span generations, and families still share stories about what it meant to have a healthcare practice that treated them with respect from the start.
Mentorship as a philosophy
The practice has a legacy of supporting new physicians, with an unwritten expectation that experienced clinicians help new doctors find their footing and learn the rhythms of community-based care.
Over the years, the approach has strengthened local access in a practical way. By recruiting and guiding early-career physicians and helping them establish themselves in Richmond, Dominion has contributed to a broader ecosystem of care, connecting patients to nearly every specialty while keeping primary care relationships at the center. It’s a model built on a proven belief that community health improves when physicians invest in each other as much as they do their own practices.
That same “relationship-first” mindset makes clinical research feel like a natural extension of care at Dominion, rather than a separate program patients have to navigate on their own.
Why research fits naturally in primary care
Clinical research often feels quite separate from routine healthcare, with unfamiliar processes and clinicians, adding another layer of complexity and burden to managing one’s health. Dominion takes a different approach. Conversations about research happen inside an existing relationship, led by a care team that already knows the person sitting in front of them, their health history, and what matters in their day-to-day life.
“So when you bring up a subject about clinical research, they really feel like you have their best interests at heart. And so it just becomes a natural part of the conversation,” says Dr. Jackson.
Trust is what helps Dominion address one of the most common concerns people have when they first hear the words “clinical trial.” Rather than minimize preconceptions, the team names them, talks through them, and focuses on what participation actually looks like, including safety oversight and the support available throughout the study.
“Because, you could potentially see a trial as ‘oh, I’m a guinea pig,’ or you could see it as a way to help me be better than I am,” says Dr. Jackson.
On the operational side, AJ Jackson has helped build the structure needed to run multiple studies and maintain high levels of confidence among trial coordinators while keeping the practice’s daily care experience steady. He started supporting the research function in 2009, trained as a coordinator, and later became the director of the research department. Today, he focuses on research operations while also helping modernize how the broader practice runs.
With a primary care population that spans ages, conditions, and life circumstances, Dominion, under AJ’s guidance, is able to support studies across a wide range of therapeutic areas.
What Dominion studies and why it matters
Because Dominion is a primary care practice, the team supports research that reflects the realities of everyday health. That includes studies in areas like:
● Alzheimer’s disease
● Cardiovascular risk reduction
● Diabetes-related complications
● COPD and other chronic respiratory conditions
● Gout and other chronic inflammatory conditions
For participants, this breadth of therapeutic areas can mean more opportunities to learn about studies that are relevant to their health needs. For sponsors, it signals a site grounded in real-world populations and long-term relationships, which supports feasibility, participant retention, and continuity over time.
Those strengths are amplified through Dominion’s partnership with Lightship, which helps make participation in research workable for people whose lives don’t fit neatly into a standard care schedule.
Partnership with Lightship: expanding access for real life
Dominion connected with Lightship during a period when the industry was exploring new ways to reduce burden and reach people who have historically been underrepresented in research. For Dominion, the partnership aligned with an existing commitment: meet people where they are, and make care feel accessible rather than complicated.
One example is supporting participation for people who may not be able to leave home easily due to disease progression, mobility limitations, or caregiver constraints. In these cases, study activities can be coordinated through virtual or hybrid care to reduce travel while maintaining investigator oversight. For example, a participant might complete parts of a study visit from home, while the investigator conferences in to answer questions, confirm clinical details, or make real-time decisions tied to safety and protocol requirements.
“And that…gives access to a patient that normally wouldn’t really be able to leave the house or care for themselves on their own,” says AJ.
Looking ahead: growth with continuity
Dominion is planning for what comes next, focused on growth while preserving the identity that made the practice a trusted anchor in Richmond in the first place. That includes expanding the care team with nurse practitioners and other providers, and exploring a second location to serve more people in the region. AJ also sees recruiting as a long-term priority, especially through medical school alumni connections and relationships that can help bring new clinicians into Richmond.
Even as healthcare economics and policy pressures shift, Dominion’s direction stays consistent: protect the trust that has been built over generations, and keep evolving in ways that make care and research participation more practical for real life.
“Onward and upward. Onward and upward,” says AJ.
What this partnership makes possible
For sponsors and CROs, Dominion brings something that’s difficult to manufacture quickly: deep community relationships, a primary care footprint, and a research operation designed to support people with professionalism and respect. For participants and their families, it offers the opportunity to consider research in a setting that feels familiar with a team that prioritizes comfort, clarity, quality, and safety.
Interested in partnering with community-rooted investigators who can support flexible visit models? Connect with Lightship today.