Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Department of Family and Community Health Nursing, School of Nursing, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA.
Stud Health Technol Inform. 2022 Jun 6;290:858-861. doi: 10.3233/SHTI220201.
Social distancing and "lockdown" measures introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic created barriers to recruitment and engagement of community members in research activities. Information technology tools were quickly introduced to allow for virtual participation of stakeholders in research. Vulnerable populations, namely communities with limited access to resources or at a higher risk to experience bias or discrimination, were less likely to engage in such virtual research initiatives. Informatics tools have the potential to support these populations, but existing disparities require a careful consideration of engagement strategies. We discuss three case studies of ongoing research projects targeting vulnerable populations and highlight the role of informatics in facilitating engagement. Target populations include family caregivers of hospice patients, low-income older adults and patients with dementia and their families. We describe strategies to overcome unique challenges introduced by the pandemic, and ways to build a more resilient future.
新冠疫情大流行期间采取的社交隔离和“封城”措施为招募和让社区成员参与研究活动带来了障碍。信息技术工具很快被引入，以允许利益攸关方虚拟参与研究。弱势群体，即资源有限或更有可能经历偏见或歧视的社区，不太可能参与此类虚拟研究计划。信息学工具有可能为这些人群提供支持，但现有的差距需要仔细考虑参与策略。我们讨论了三个针对弱势群体的正在进行的研究项目的案例研究，并强调了信息学在促进参与方面的作用。目标人群包括临终关怀患者的家庭护理者、低收入的老年人以及痴呆症患者及其家属。我们描述了克服大流行带来的独特挑战的策略，以及建立更具弹性的未来的方法。
