Community Health Workers, Community Health Centers, and the Ongoing Ambulatory COVID-19 Response

This issue of the journal highlights our abiding interest in community health workers (CHWs) and community health centers. We also continue to explore the avoidable COVID-19 pandemic tragedy with articles ranging from detailed engineering articles to several letters to the editor. Finally, we are always pleased to explore ambulatory issues form an international perspective and welcome an article from Brazil.

Rahman and Cooper and colleagues explore different challenges and opportunities facing CHWs. Using a focus group approach, Rahman explores senior ambulatory care managers' perspectives on supports needed to sustain CHWs. Cooper and colleagues explore links between CHWs and public health nurses. McCarville and co-authors documents the factors associated with effective integration of CHWs into health care systems.

Northridge and colleagues explore a relatively untouched research area: board members of community health centers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has sadly afforded many research opportunities. Benneyan and colleagues explore one of the biggest challenges that I as a clinician face in this pandemic-long COVID-19 especially impact breathing and the need for treatment opportunities in a backed up health system. The author explores ambulatory respiratory units following up on COVID-19 patients using an industrial engineering perspective.

Burnout is one of the additional outcomes of the pandemic. Kim examines this issue as it impact on nurses.

From an international perspective, Neves examines no-show rates for ambulatory visits from a Brazilian point of view, with information that may be useful to many of the readers.

Finally we are pleased to publish several letters to the editor dealing with COVID-19.

-Norbert I. Goldfield, MD

Editor