Annals of family medicine
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Annals of family medicine · Apr 2022
Black patient perceptions of COVID-19 vaccine, treatment, and testing.
Context: The Presence for Racial Justice project leverages the Stanford Presence 5 framework to present anti-racism communication practices that promote clinician trust-building for Black patients in primary care. With the racial/ethnic disparities in COVID-19 infection rates, an assessment of Black patients' perspectives around COVID-19 care is required to promote health equity in current and future health crises. Objective: To compile clinician communication strategies for promotion of patient understanding and agency concerning Black patients' perceptions of COVID-19 vaccine, treatment and testing. ⋯ They expressed a preference for receiving COVID-19 medical care in the comfort of their homes due to high costs and risks of maltreatment, death, and loneliness. Conclusion: Black patients hinged their vaccination decisions on having enough time to observe vaccine rollout and discussion with their clinicians. Relating new medical interventions (ie., COVID-19 vaccine) to accept medical approaches (ie., Flu vaccine) and being aware of historical distrust in medicine can inform clinician efforts to empower and provide excellent care for Black patients moving forward.
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Annals of family medicine · Apr 2022
Patient engagement works: Patient and researcher experiences of patient partnership in primary healthcare research.
Context: Health researchers are increasingly engaging patients and their families as partners in the research process, from inception to knowledge translation. The trend toward 'patient-oriented' research is encouraged by a growing view that studies which integrate the patient perspective will make better use of resources to produce more relevant evidence that can be more easily translated to clinical settings. While there is an emerging literature on best practices, challenges, and learnings related to patient engagement (PE), few studies consider the experiences of patient partners (PP) and researchers in the same project. ⋯ PP make integral contributions to study and instrument design, data analysis, and knowledge translation. Clear expectations about the degree and nature of PE and team members' roles are critical. Conclusions: Meaningful PE requires patient-researcher partnership and clear expectation setting at the outset and throughout the research process, and ongoing flexibility to adapt.
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Annals of family medicine · Apr 2022
The Virginia primary care workforce: Final results of a novel method of analysis.
Background: In order to evaluate the capacity of primary care to provide comprehensive, coordinated, continuous care, a description of the primary care workforce is necessary. There have been prior efforts to describe the distribution of primary care, however, an accurate and timely description of which clinicians are in what location has been lacking. Further, the scope of care provided has not been fully explored. ⋯ This will provide insight into the way care is provided across the state and establishes a foundation for evaluation of continuous care, comprehensive care and coordinated care in the future. As claims can be used to identify individuals over the course of time, it will be possible to identify scope, continuity and additional characteristics of clinicians. Additionally, we hope to identify advanced practice providers and their scope of care as well as clinicians migration and evolution during their career.
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Annals of family medicine · Apr 2022
Enhancing participant diversity during recruitment for a national COVID-19 surveillance study using stakeholder engagement.
In May 2020 A COVID-19 Community Research Partnership, a surveillance study aimed at learning about the spread of the COVID-19 virus in local communities and among healthcare workers, began. Recognizing the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on low-income and racial/ethnic minority groups, recruitment strategies that enabled diverse representation and engagement were used. We describe a community based participatory approach to engage a stakeholder advisory board to guide recruitment and data collection. ⋯ Demographics include 90% White/Caucasian, 5% Black/African American; 3% Hispanic and 2% Asian or Pacific Islander; 38% are healthcare workers; 67% are female. Conclusions Use of a community stakeholder advisory board has enhanced understanding and participation in a COVID-19 Community Research Partnership. Engaging diverse community stakeholders early in the research process was essential for ensuring data collection efforts are patient-centered and tailored to reach diverse communities.
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Annals of family medicine · Apr 2022
Patients' experience with virtual care during COVID-19 pandemic in primary care practice.
Context: The advent of COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020 galvanized primary care practices into adopting telemedicine to be able to continue delivering care to patients safely. As recipients of care delivered virtually, capturing patients' experience is key to evaluating its success and shortcomings. Objective: To describe patients' experience and perceptions with virtual care during COVID-19 pandemic. ⋯ Interestingly, 84% (n=496) of responders had smart phones and only 28% had computers with video cameras. Conclusion: Patients have varying experiences in virtual care which should be taken into consideration as this method of care delivery becomes more integrated into primary care practice. Majority of patients surveyed had access to smartphones than computers with video camera which creates an opportunity for exploring the use of this modality to expand care delivered through telemedicine.