Open AccessOvercoming the Digital Divide in the Post–COVID-19 “Reset”: Enhancing Group Virtual Visits with Community Health Workers
Author(s) -
Megha Shah,
Ashley Christina Gibbs,
Mohammed K. Ali,
K M Venkat Narayan,
Nadia Islam
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
jmir. journal of medical internet research/journal of medical internet research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.446
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1439-4456
pISSN - 1438-8871
DOI - 10.2196/27682
Subject(s) - cognitive reframing , pandemic , health care , digital health , reset (finance) , population , covid-19 , psychology , public relations , medicine , nursing , business , political science , environmental health , social psychology , disease , finance , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , law
The COVID-19 pandemic created numerous barriers to the implementation of participant-facing research. For most, the pandemic required rapid transitioning to all virtual platforms. During this pandemic, the most vulnerable populations are at highest risk of falling through the cracks of engagement in clinical care and research. Nonetheless, we argue that we should reframe the discussion to consider how this transition may create opportunities to engage extensively to reach populations. Here, we present our experience in Atlanta (Georgia, United States) in transitioning a group visit model for South Asian immigrants to a virtual platform and the pivotal role community members in the form of community health workers can play in building capacity among participants. We provide details on how this model helped address common barriers to group visit models in clinical practice and how our community health worker team innovatively addressed the digital challenges of working with an elderly population with limited English proficiency.