JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic created numerous barriers to implement participant-facing research. For most, the pandemic required quickly transitioning to all virtual platforms. Like clinical care in the pandemic, our most vulnerable populations are at highest risk of falling through the cracks of engagement in research. Yet, we argue that we should reframe the discussion to consider how this transition may create opportunities to engage hard to reach populations. In the following, we present our experience in Atlanta, GA, 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 (CHWs) 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 CHW team innovatively addressed the digital challenges of working with an elderly population with limited English proficiency.