Engaging Stakeholders and Patients with Complex Health and Social Needs during a Public Health Crisis

Background: COVID-19 has made a significant impact on the lives of high-cost, high-needs (HCHN) patients across the country. Hospitalized COVID-19 patients often have at least one, if not multiple, chronic conditions. With the COVID-19 situation taking shape so quickly, health systems have not had the time or resources to slow down and ask HCHN patients and other key stakeholders about their unique experiences and needs during the pandemic to guide COVID-related patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) and comparative effectiveness research (CER). Proposed Solution to the Problem: The project team will capture the emerging COVID-19 research needs as expressed by HCHN patients facing COVID-19, frontline workers in primary care, ED, and inpatient settings, hospital system leadership, community-based referral organizations (CBOs), policy makers, and insurers to collaboratively develop a roadmap for future PCOR/CER during the pandemic and similar periods of social isolation. The team will advance the engagement of HCHN patients in research during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Objectives: The long-term objective is to leverage a network engaged in the care of HCHN patients to direct future COVID-19 research and inform special research considerations for this at-risk population during and after the pandemic as well as identifying themes that will inform PCOR/CER for other significant public health crises. The team will: Capture the emerging COVID-19 research needs as expressed by stakeholder groups Use the needs and barriers identified to inform collaborative development of a roadmap for future PCOR/CER related to engaging HCHN patients during COVID-19 and similar periods demanding social isolation Develop dissemination products that will build knowledge about the stakeholders' perspective around PCOR/CER Develop methods to sustain stakeholder relationships after the award period