Reflections on the Importance of Community-Partnered Research Strategies for Health Equity in the Era of COVID-19

In the face of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) physical distancing mandates, community-engaged research (CER) faces new vulnerabilities in the equitable inclusion of communities within research partnerships aiming to address these very inequities.

We convened a series of virtual meetings with our CER partnership to discuss the current state of activities and to identify considerations for remote community engagement. We outlined and expanded recommendations through iterative, partnered discussions to inform protections against new CER susceptibilities.

This article presents CER recommendations in translational COVID-19 research for health equity, including increasing accessibility for remote engagement, promoting opportunities for bi-directional knowledge exchange, committing to a community-centered workforce, and leveraging novel opportunities within community-academic partnerships.

Researchers conducting CER face an opportunity to reimagine community engagement remotely for partnered resilience to ensure the voices of the most affected are appropriately and inclusively integrated into all aspects of decision-making within the COVID-19 research, practice, and policymaking continuum.