Reflections on the COVID‐19 Pandemic: Impacts on Clinical Rheumatology Research

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated shutdowns significantly affected clinical research, with interruptions and changes in research processes, personnel responsibilities, and participant engagement, resulting in both immediate and long-term impacts for investigators and study teams. In this editorial, we describe our study team's experiences, lessons learned, and ways in which the pandemic has changed our approach to clinical rheumatology research. Immediate impactsResearch processes. On March 18, 2020, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research issued guidance to suspend "non-critical" in-person research but encouraged teams to continue research remotely to the fullest extent possible. Like other study teams worldwide, we were faced with the challenge of quickly evaluating each study to determine what could be continued, then developing plans for modifying activities to meet university COVID-19 policies for research. Table 1 shows our projects that were active in 2020 and the changes to research processes during the COVID-19 pandemic.Although our university worked quickly to provide infrastructure and services to remote staff so they could continue essential daily research tasks, the first six months required creativity, flexibility, and patience. For example, in the early months, research staff used their personal cellphones with call masking to make recruitment and assessment calls. We found that it was more difficult to reach participants from a blocked number than it had been calling from our university landlines. This made study recruitment and enrollment far more challenging. Additionally, if participants wanted to speak to research staff, they had to leave a message on our university voicemail and wait for our return call, which sometimes led to delays in communication. Furthermore, mailings to and from participants were delayed as a result of reduced university post office hours and services, US Postal Service interruptions, and remote work.