Creating a Team to Focus on Diversity and Inclusion in Research Education and Recruiting

In total, VA supported a wide range of research efforts that included four industry-sponsored COVID-19 vaccine trials conducted at 20 VA medical centers; therapeutic treatment trials under the National Institutes of Health Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) portfolio; a study site for the nationwide Researching COVID-19 to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) initiative, a large-scale study on the long-term effects of COVID-19; and a therapeutic intervention using a prostate cancer drug to target the COVID-19 virus in the lungs. National Veterans Outreach Groups Center for Minority Veterans National Center for Homelessness Among Veterans Center for Development and Civic Engagement (formerly Voluntary Services) Ambulatory Care Medical Media and External Affairs VISN 9 Communications Officer Social Worker from Hampton VAMC Women's Health Research Network Office of Community Engagement Office of Intergovernmental Affairs Office of National Chaplain Services Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs U.S. Digital Services With 12 voting members, the task of reviewing communications strategies, materials, and informed consent documents began at the first meeting in October 2020. The D&I subcommittee advised researchers to use a multichannel approach that included print and digital media, including a communication toolkit, geotargeted mailings and email campaigns, a 30-sec public service announcement, media engagement, social media, human-interest stories posted to VA's main news website, and feature stories posted to participating VA medical center websites.