Best Practices for PCOR teams engaging online

Patient- and community-engaged research teams are increasingly using online platforms to meet virtually.
Authentic online PCOR engagement requires each team to adequately interface with platforms the PCOR team choses to use. Thus, we encourage PCOR teams to think critically about and preemptively vet platforms before fully implementing them for team use.
This website provides a thoughtful summary of several types of online platforms. We offer tips to consider when selecting a new platform for virtual PCOR engagement.

Four tips for online engagement

Patient and community-partnered research team members should consider the following before engaging as a team online:

1	Decide types of platforms the PCOR team needs to fully and authentically collaborate online

Platform types PCOR teams typically use include video conferencing, document sharing, scheduling, chat and project management

2	Discuss most important attributes for each platform type with PCOR team members

Under “Benefits and Challenges” tab, compare attributes of popular online platforms such as cost, accessibility, internet speed, privacy and security

3	Assign a lead/champion who learns how to use each platform and assists other team members

Offer short training sessions during team meetings to help members learn platform features
If available, share platform company “demo” videos with team members

4	Conduct periodic “check-ins” with team members to assess how online engagement is going

Periodically ask team members the following:

- Describe how they are using each platform
- Rank their confidence using each feature
- Rate their overall satisfaction with each platform